Angel Eyes
by Beautyheart18
Summary: In the throes of the inevitable confrontation, the Shadow Riders struggle to maintain their own secret existence - all the while attempting to treat Alexis. Yet accounting for the force against them, they may require the aid of some unlikely assistance...
1. Chapter 1

Me: Whoopsie! Forgot the disclaimer! Better do it now+Ahem+ I do not own Yugioh Gx and never will. Oh how it breaks me heart! -

Angel Eyes

"Miss Alicia Rayonetto, is it?"

"Yes sir."

"Well, I am pleased to welcome you to Duel Academy. Congratulations on scoring so high on both the written and practical exams. Your parents must be…"

"My mother's dead," she responded.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. You're father must be very proud."

"I only wish…" she whispered as the proctor left. Sure, her father had permitted her to take the exams, but never did he suspect she had been studying and would pass. He never supported her when she would talk of her dream to be a duelist in the professional league. Sometimes, she wondered if the only reason he didn't put her up for adoption was her close resemblance to her mother.

She only looked like her late mother for their personalities where very different. Her mother was an easygoing, optimistic woman whom nothing seemed to faze. Alicia, however, knew of the troubles in life and unlike her mother, she acted like it. She was often cold and sharp-tongued and didn't seem to have a soft side. That could be because after her mother passed away in an accident when she was young, it seemed that she wasn't wanted at home. Her father was always so proud of Aaron, her brother, though they both were skilled at dueling.

Aaron was four years older at nineteen and acted as if he and his sister weren't related, not even distant cousins. In fact, he acted as if she were from another planet, only speaking to her if it was absolutely necessary, which it usually wasn't. He looked so much like her father, with dirty-blonde hair and hard brown eyes. He always wore his hair combed back to look like the classy person he was. Alicia's family had money and a lot of it, but nothing they tried could bring her mother back. The doctors had said it was impossible.

Yes, the girl did look like her mother. She had wavy, shoulder-length dark brown hair and semi-pale skin. Of course, the pale could be from the same reason she was also very thin, she didn't really eat much at home ever since her mother's passing and when she did, it wasn't something that was vitamin-rich or anything. Basically, she lived off of small portions of pasta, bread, or some other thing in the same food group. It's not like she had severe allergies to most food or anything, she just didn't want it. Just like she didn't want to stay at home, and now, now that she was finally going to Duel Academy, she finally got something she wanted after years of waiting.

When she arrived in her dorm, the uniform was laid out on the bed and she changed out of her faded jean skirt, brown shoes, and white top and into the white jacket along with the blue skirt and boots. After that, she walked downstairs to the dinner party that was being held for the arriving students. If her life hadn't been so hard, she would have gasped at the fine dormitory with the golden walls and fountain in the center of the large room, but she couldn't. Girls were talking to each other all over and she assumed they must have been old friends, too bad she didn't have any. She shook her head and scolded herself for the moment of self-pity and walked around, looking, not really admiring, the room. From what she overheard by walking past chatting students, she realized she could easily figure out their strategies that they used while dueling. She might have been able to see the duels they were in during the entrance exams if her father hadn't taken so long to allow her to go. God, she was glad to just be away from home.

"You okay? You seem a little dazed."

She just looked at the person who had spoken to her, semi-surprised. Back home, everyone just ignored her and anyone who didn't and tried to be nice was instantly told off by Aaron when he found out, which somehow, he always did. She'd never known why he hated her so, she hadn't done anything to him. That's just how he was. She then realized she was only worrying the woman even more by being silent.

"Honey? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thank you," she said politely. Though she did have a tongue, she only used it with people closer to her age, never any teachers or anything. She may have a talent for voicing her opinions, but she wasn't stupid. Apparently, it ran in the family because Aaron was the same way. At school, his teachers would admire how kind he seemed to be, though some students knew the truth that was he would never let anyone near his little sister.

"Are you sure? Maybe you'd like to lie down? This party isn't a requirement, you know. Not that you have to leave."

"I think I will," she replied, turning. "Thank you, Miss…"

"Fontaine," she said. "I am the head of the girls' dorm. I hope you feel better, dear. It's difficult to miss the first day."

"I have no plans to," Alicia said, walking to her room.

When she arrived, she decided to examine the room. She found it to be quite nice, with a comfortable bed, couch, a laptop, and a desk. There was also a television, but she didn't really watch anything. Mostly, she liked to read, and work over her cards and duel, of course.

She went into the bathroom, pulled off her uniform and hopped in the shower, putting the water on a warm temperature. It only took her a short amount of time for she never took long showers, partially because Aaron would take an eternity and she wouldn't have much time left to take one before school. After she finished, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She grabbed a white towel, wrapped it around her body, then grabbed another and dried her hair. She pulled out a comb and ran it through her hair, being sure not to pull too hard. When her hair was tangle-free, she set the comb down and looked into the mirror. Her own blue-gray eyes stared at her, seeming to ask her "What are you doing here?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I know, but it's not the same," she told the reflection. "It's all gonna be different now. No more of Aaron keeping people away from me, no more of my father looking down on me. Now, I'm my own person."

Her eyes seemed to say "You always were and you know it!" She smiled again and went into her room, changing into a nightgown. She put the towels down and crawled into bed, resting her head against the soft pillow.

"Yeah… I just can't wait…"

The bright sun coming in through the window was her alarm. She got out of bed and changed into her school uniform, then went to the bathroom to fix her hair. As usual, it didn't need any real styling, she frowned upon some of the styles that were so complex they looked impossible to create. Running the brush through her hair, she sighed.

"My first day. I hope we do something important. After all, I'm sure when I do get out of this school, my father and Aaron will want to see how much I've improved and I'd like to impress them. Not that I think I need to."

She picked her deck up off the table and headed out the door into the hall. She walked by a couple of girls in the hall, but didn't pay much attention to them. After all, she just wasn't used to socializing with others, not even her own family. However, as she walked by a group of three girls who were apparently walking to the same class, the blonde girl with them spoke up.

"Hey," she called, walking up to her, her two friends following. "It's not usual to see people walking alone here. Want to walk with us?"

At first, the brunette was surprised. A girl her age asked if she wanted to walk with her? She actually wanted to know her?

"Sure," Alicia said, though it was hard for her to say it in a nice tone and not a cold, snappy, or sarcastic one. "Thanks."

"No problem," the blonde replied. "I'm Alexis, and this is Mindy and Jasmine." She introduced her friends and they smiled.

"I'm Alicia."

"So Alicia," Mindy asked. "What are your cards like?"

"I don't know how to put it. Sorry."

"Well," said Jasmine. "What's your favorite card that you have?"

"Oh, my favorite is The Agent of Creation-Venus."

"So you like those cards?" asked Alexis. "That's cool. Myself, I like Cyber Angels and female warriors."

"Like Amazon cards?"

"No, like Etoile Cyber and Cyber Blader, cards like that."

"Oh, I've heard of those. I've heard they're not very strong by themselves, but they are capable of combinations and such. They sound interesting."

"As do yours, Alicia."

They reached the classroom and Alicia looked around, spotting all kinds of people. One particularly caught her eye. He was a brunette in a red jacket and was standing with two others by their seats in the front of the class. One of his friends was short, really short, and had blue hair that really needed a good brushing. He looked much more timid than his friend, who was smiling happily and chatting away about something she thought had to do with dueling, but he was talking so fast it was impossible to tell. From her point of view, it didn't sound like the blue-haired kid was getting it either, though he nodded randomly, trying to pretend he understood. The other was large and dressed in white and red. He had a large nose and oddly enough, reminded Alicia of a koala, an animal she had seen while looking through a book in the local library. She realized that he knew about his appearance because he began talking about his cards, many of which were koala-like. His friend didn't seem to be focusing on what he was saying, but he talked anyway, switching the subject of conversation to grilled cheese.

"Settle down, children!"

Everyone took their seat as the professor entered the room. He had long, dark hair that was tied back. He wore a white shirt and a red tie over dark pants, but she barely noticed that. In his arms, he held an enormous, orange cat. Enormous it certainly was. She had seen cats in her neighborhood and they were nowhere near the size of that cat, who seemed to be at least twice the size of the largest she ha ever seen. The professor sat down at the desk and the cat crawled onto it and curled up, yawning lazily.

"Hello!" the man greeted. "I am Professor Banner. I'll be your alchemy teacher. Now, can anyone tell me anything about how alchemy is linked with dueling?"

If Alicia were the type, she would have replied no and told him just how pointless the subject was, but she held her tongue. The brunette boy, however, did not.

"What does alchemy have to do with dueling?"

She slapped her forehead in disgust at the Slifer's question while many other Obelisks snickered. One Obelisk, however, decided to voice how strongly he felt about the remark.

"Hey slacker!" he said rudely. "Some of us are planning on coming here to get an education in dueling! If the professor wants to tell you something, you shut up and listen, got it!"

"Hey, I plan on getting an education!" Jaden countered good-naturedly. "See Chazz, it just doesn't always work out."

"Why you…"

"Children!" Banner said, calling attention. "That's enough bickering! If it wasn't the first day here for you, I would give you detention. But, because I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you off if you behave, all right?"

"Sure!" the brunette replied. "Works for me! Thanks!"

Alicia hit her forehead again. God, how stupid could this guy get? Didn't he know he should shut up now?

Class went slowly, but not too slowly as Alicia sat at her desk, trying to pay attention. She was trying, but her mind found the subject so boring and, as the Slifer said, pointless. She almost exclaimed in joy when the bell rang.

"Finally," she said, walking out. "The torture is over for today…"

She walked through the schools, looking for a place to spend the free time she had until her next class. She found a bench in the front of the school and sat down with a sigh. She tilted her head back to look up at the clouds, the clouds that she wondered if Aaron and her father could see back home. Oddly enough, a part of her seemed to miss them, though she couldn't think of why. After all, what did she owe them? Her father had helped bring her into the world, obviously, but that was it for him and Aaron never did anything for her. She smiled. If Aaron were there, he'd try to justify his actions by saying his actions helped keep away people who shouldn't be with her. Like the kinds of people parents usually warn their kids about when they tell them not to talk to strangers and such. Inside, she knew Aaron probably wouldn't care if anything did happen to her. He just didn't seem like the person who would, along with her father.

She went through the rest of her day without really paying attention in class. She knew it wouldn't be so bad for her since the teachers apparently didn't TEACH anything on the first day in the school. They just went over rules, expectations, schedules, and all the other meaningless stuff they say on the first day and it bored her out of her wits. She wondered if they did the same to the second and third years, probably not. Right then, she wished she was one of them so she didn't have to listen to the various teachers ramble on and on about things that they say so quickly they can't possible understand themselves.

She went into her room and pulled off her uniform, slipping her nightgown on. She closed the curtains and blocked out the light that was still pouring in and switched off the light, flopping into bed. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but all she could think about was Aaron and her father. She hadn't told them she was leaving, but she assumed they must know by now. Did they care that she was gone? That she left without telling anyone? Probably not, and if they did, it was because she didn't say anything, not that she actually left.

"No," she told herself. "They don't care, and neither do I." I small smile crossed her face. "Aaron would be so ticked off, Alexis and her friends actually talked to me. I bet he'd tell her off if he were here. Thank God he's not…"

She sighed in relief and yawned as she felt the sleep finally take her as she began to dream about the year ahead of her.

* * *

Okay! I just got the idea for this and well, here it is! Now believe me, I don't expect this story to be liked. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it got flamed so much I'll be forced to delete it and save all the poor souls who have read it! Okay then! BYE! 


	2. Chapter 2

Me: OH MY GOD. I'm actually continuing this! After some serious thoughts about discontinuing it!

Zane: Oh, yippee…

Me: Well YOU'RE still as supportive as always… Well, here we go again!

* * *

An Instant Dislike

Alicia sat up in bed in a cold sweat. She put a hand to her head and breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. It had been a nightmare, not that she wasn't expecting to get a few after arriving. After all, she was away from home and she was, in a way, there against her father's wishes. She had dreamed about her brother coming to the island and dragging her out onto the boat and back home where they felt she belonged.

"But they don't know," she told herself, finally becoming calm and sliding out of bed. "They don't know that I do belong here. I don't belong back home with them while they look down on my for everything I do, and some of the things I don't do. I'll show them, I will."

She headed into the bathroom and stepped into a warm shower, letting it wash the memories and scenes of her nightmare away. She knew she would probably have more dreams like that one, but at the moment, she didn't want to think about it. Instead, she concentrated on what she would learn at the school.

"I can't wait for class today, unless they have more rules to go over. If so, I can wait forever. I just wanna learn what I came here to learn and I'd rather not have them waste my time and theirs' by telling us what we already know, most of which we learned in grade school."

She turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a clean, blue towel around her and then using it to dry off. She brushed and dried her hair before changing into her uniform that she'd left on a hanger inside on the bathroom door and brushing her hair again, as getting dressed had messed it up.

Her towel was placed in a laundry basket before she left, grabbed her cards from the bedside end table and left the room. The halls were empty because of the hour, as most students would only be waking up in half and hour, but she wanted to see the sunrise that morning. The sunset had been lovely, so she figured the rising of the great light in the sky would be just as nice to see.

She stood outside and waited for the sun, not paying attention to anything else. She jumped when a soft voice spoke, then becoming embarrassed by her own reaction. She mentally scolded herself and turned to the owner of the voice.

"It's quite early," he said. "I of course wonder why you'd be up at this hour."

When she saw him, she took an instant dislike. He didn't look like Aaron at all, with blue eyes and hair of the same color, and skin paler than Aaron's had ever been, even when he was once inside all week with the flu. They weren't the same physique-wise either. The student was obviously shorter and was thinner and bonier than Aaron with more of a curve to him, making him appear feminine and truly look like a girl whereas her brown-haired brother looked like his gender. Still, she saw her brother in him, not in his looks, but more in his manner. He looked at her and gave her the impression that he believed he was above her and everyone else, and it made her glare. He noticed.

"This is the first time either of us has seen each other and already you dislike me?"

She looked away at the rising sun. Why did the very thing she had come to see have to come when he was there? Well that was that, he ruined the moment.

"It doesn't take long to recognize your kind," she said coldly, not giving him the honor of even making eye contact. "I can pick you out of a crowd by just hearing your voice, though it did help to see you as well."

He raised a slender eyebrow in response to her comment. "My kind?"

"Yes, you stuck up snobs who think you own the Earth and everything on it. Obviously you're one of them. Let me tell you, I hate to break your darkened soul, but I don't give a crap about how much you think of yourself."

His eyes narrowed. "I will tell you that I am not used to being spoken to like that, kid."

"Well get used to it then, because I'll never hesitate to speak my mind against you snobs."

"Obelisk or not, you'd better watch your tongue here, girl. I own this school and no one speaks to me like that."

She gave a mocking laugh. "Own the school? Oh, please enlighten me on how that is."

"I'm the best duelist in the school and top of my class, and every class for that matter. This is my ground, freshman, and you'd better watch your step."

The sun was shining down on them, letting them know that other students would be waking up around then. She turned with a swish of her brown locks and began to walk off.

"Whatever, pretty boy. Go do your hair or something."

He glared after her as she strode off towards the school. The wind blew his cerulean hair into his face, but he didn't really care. He wouldn't fix it yet, not after her remark about him doing his hair. With a sigh, he headed into the building, hoping he wouldn't have to see her anymore that day.

Alicia didn't think anymore about the male Obelisk, except that she did wish she caught his name. Of course, she wasn't about to go ask him, not ever. Since he claimed to be the top student and 'own the school', she figured that anyone she asked would know who he was.

A time later, she joined Alexis, Mindy, and Jasmine, who were walking through the halls. Alexis smiled at her.

"Hey Alicia. Come one, we have to introduce you to some of our friends!"

The brunette nodded and followed them, led over to a group of three students, two in red and one in white with red on it. She blinked. They were surely Slifers, and they looked very familiar. The closer she got, the more she realized who they were. They were the three students she had seen in class the day before, and the brunette of them was the one who had asked that stupid question about why alchemy was important when he wanted to learn to duel. She wasn't must for brainless people either.

"Alicia," the blonde girl introduced. "Meet Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley."

Jaden smiled warmly while Chumley and Syrus were shy. The brown-haired Slifer was as excited and jumpy as he was the day before and she wondered if he drank to much coffee in the morning, even though she figured the Slifer dorms didn't have all that much coffee.

"Hey there, Alicia!" he chirped. "I'm Jaden! Nice to meet you!"

She smiled. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad. "I'm Alicia. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Syrus and Chumley recovered from their shyness and each said hello, receiving a smile and a greeting in return. Slifers weren't so bad, she told herself. Not nearly as bad as that annoying Obelisk. That reminded her of her desire to know his name.

"Hey Alexis," she said. "Do you know the blue-haired Obelisk who says he's the top student. He looks like a girl and it's really surprising that he's not one. Do you know him?"

She blinked. "Oh, that's Zane! Yeah, who doesn't know him? He's the top duelist in the school. He's also Sy's brother."

Alicia looked at the short boy quickly; taking in just how different he looked and acted from his brother. They didn't look at all alike, and for a moment, she thought Alexis was joking, but decided not to say anything and nodded.

"Well Syrus, I hope you don't take offense, but your brother is one of the biggest snobs I've ever met, so much so that he rivals my own brother, and that's an amazing thing." She ran a hand through her hair and continued. "He thinks he's so great, but even though I know it didn't help, I'm glad I was able to tell him so this morning."

They stared. "You said that to his face?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, what of it?"

Chumley looked at her in astonishment. "This is my second year here, because I was held back and all, and never has anyone EVER said anything to Zane. Are you sure it was Zane? THE Zane?"

"Yes, I'm sure it was him. No one's ever commented on his snotty attitude? Well consider me surprised. What do you think he's gonna do to you? He's a skinny little kid!"

"He's not really that bad…" Syrus said quietly, making a weak attempt to defend his brother, even though he did secretly agree with what she was saying.

"You don't need to defend him, but I'll say it's certainly good of you to defend him. He doesn't deserve it, though, he really doesn't."

Syrus was quiet. Alicia was right, Zane did feel that he was above others, but he hadn't realized how much it showed to the majority of people surrounding them. Why had their parents never noticed if it was so apparent? Come to think of it, he remembered Zane being real sweet when they were younger. What had made him so cold?

The first bell rang and the group of seven first years left to attend class. To Alicia's delight and Jaden's dismay, the professor was done with rules and they were actually going to LEARN that day. She did wonder why Jaden came to the school if he seemed to despise learning as much as it seemed. The classes weren't THAT bad, at least, not bad enough that they'd really make someone start groaning like Jaden did, earning a mark against him from the teacher of that class, Dr. Crowler. Crowler was not nearly as nice as Professor Banner was, but she felt that his class was much less irritating than Zane.

"Man, free at last!" Jaden said as the last bell of the day rung. He stretched and yawned.

"Not yet, Jaden," Alicia said with a smile. "Don't forget, we've got homework."

His eyes went wide. "Aw crud! I left it!" He looked around frantically. "I can't go back now! I'm so screwed!"

She laughed. "I'll tell you what. I'll go and copy the assignment in the Obelisk Blue dorms and bring it to you late when no one will see, okay?"

"But there's a curfew!" Syrus interjected. "What if…"

"No one'll see me, Sy, don't worry. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay, and thanks a million!"

She headed back to the dorms and dined there, then had the assignment copied. She looked in the mirror in her room while she was waiting for the right time to go; when the sunset was over and the sky was dark.

"I know I probably shouldn't," she said, talking to her reflection again. "But it'll be a rough year if Jaden starts it off by missing the very first assignment. I can't do it for him, but I can at least give it to him so he can try. I know you understand that."

She waited about an hour before grabbing the papers and setting off for the Slifer dorms. It was chilly outside, and she wished the girls' uniforms had SLEEVES on their jackets, but she decided to not focus on it, instructing herself not to be a sissy.

She was almost to the dorms when she saw someone coming, and she knew right away who it was. She could imagine his blue eyes narrowing, as he surely recognized her too. Her hair blew behind her as she neared him, but began passing him without a word, only stopping when he spoke.

"You know, there's a curfew, meaning you shouldn't be out here."

"Then do you have a special privilege to be here?"

His eyes narrowed. "You gonna snitch on me?"

She grinned. "You gonna tattle on me? If so, they'll wonder how you saw me here."

Zane spotted the papers in her hand. "One of the Slifers forgot his homework, eh? Why don't you just go home and save them the grief of slaving over an assignment that they can't do?"

"Why don't you save me the grief of hearing your voice and shut up? You go your way and I'll go mine."

He shook his head and strode off to the dorms, leaving the girl to go to the dorm. She did so, receiving seemingly endless thanks from Jaden. That was all he had time to say, for she told them she had to go back to Obelisk before someone noticed she was gone.

She walked back quickly, determined to get to her dorms as soon as she could. She almost cursed in annoyance when she saw Zane ahead of her, obviously walking calmly and casually to his dorm. She knew it was slightly risky, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease him, anything that annoyed him was great for her. She caught up.

"Aw, you waited for me? How sweet of you."

He sighed. "Just when I thought the demons had dragged you under…"

She gave him a sugary, sweet smile that made him want to puke. "Funny how what we want just doesn't happen, eh Zane?"

He quickened his pace, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he could avoid a full confrontation at the time. Sadly, she didn't see it as a time to stop her teasing.

"You know, you shouldn't shake your ass when you walk if you aren't a girl. Guys will start falling for you."

"Shut up!" he snapped. "You're the one who's taken the privilege of actually LOOKING at my rear, you know!"

"Yeah, well unlike some of the people you'll attract, all I'd ever do is look, sweetie."

"You're disgusting, you know that? Why do you think about these things? Have you nothing better to do?"

"Well as of right now, no."

They approached the Obelisk Blue dorm and she smiled evilly as he moved to go inside.

"Now remember Zane, watch the people you let inside your room with you. I'd say make sure you could beat them in a fight, but that'd mean you can't even let Banner's cat inside."

He glared and whipped his head around, stalking off. "Oh, shut up!"

Alicia smiled all the way into her room and even as she brushed her teeth, changed into her nightgown, and lied down in bed. Her final meeting with Zane had really made her day, and she sighed, remembering her brother.

"There's someone here who's like you, Aaron," she said aloud to the darkness. "But unlike you, I can get away with insulting him, so maybe he's not quite as bad as you." She closed her eyes and tried to envision the events of the next day. "I'll show you and our father. I'll prove that I belong here…"

* * *

Me: There we have it!

Zane: She hates me!

Me: But I don't, sweetie +Hugs him+

Zane+Pants from lack of air+ I wish you did…


	3. Chapter 3

Me: Well, as we saw last chapter, Alicia OBVIOUSLY does NOT like Zane too much…

Zane: We can tell!

Me: Yes well, she was kinda supposed to be DIFFERENT from Kata in Academy Year and The Black Butterfly, Zane…

Zane: Still…

* * *

Not So Cruel

Alicia had gone down to breakfast in the morning, not bothering to risk seeing Zane outside watching the sun rise. She was sitting at a long table eating some toast and waiting for Alexis, Mindy, and Jasmine to come, never expecting two of them to arrive and an annoying fan girl to replace the third.

"Morning!" Alexis said, sitting down at the table with her breakfast of choice, pancakes. Jasmine had the same and sat down beside her, as did Mindy, who was jabbering away about something that neither of her friends seemed to be listening to. Alicia realized why when Mindy addressed her.

"Hey Alicia, what do you think of Chazz?"

She remembered him as a rude, snobby Obelisk who had even dared to scold Jaden in the middle of class. Dumbly, Jaden had responded to the insult with a naive remark, but Chazz was certainly a snob. Just like Zane, meaning she didn't care for him. No, beyond that, she didn't like him at all, and she'd always tell the truth.

"He's a snob and I think he's perfectly rude," she said simply. "Why do you ask?"

"No silly! I mean, what do you think of his LOOKS?"

She blinked. "He's okay, but I'd never call him gorgeous, Mindy. You think so?"

The dark-haired girl hugged herself with a wide grin on her face, obviously imagining Chazz. It was crystal clear that she liked him, and maybe a little more than she should.

"How can you not? He's so dreamy! My Chazzy!"

"He ask you out or something? No offense, but please tell me you said no."

She sighed. "No, he didn't ask me out…but I wish he did! I'd NEVER turn down an invitation like that! Wouldn't it be great? Well, you don't think so and neither do they, but I know it would be!"

Alicia smiled. "No worries, Mindy. You think whatever you want. Don't let me get you down."

Jasmine shook her head. "Really, you'd think she came to this school to chase boys! I don't think anyone here's worth going completely crazy over, but I guess Zane looks pretty nice. Actually, scratch that. He looks like a pretty girl, no offense Lex."

"Hey, none taken," the blonde said, seeming to barely listen to the question. She was obviously into dueling a lot more than her friends and also didn't seem to care very much about boys or a relationship at all. "I get it. Zane's uh…not the most masculine guy out there…"

"You're kind to him," the brunette interjected, gaining their attention. "I'd say he's just plain girly, and I believe I have taken the liberty of saying that to him. He takes it well, though."

"Yeah," Jasmine said. "But your opinion of 'taking it well' is that they don't completely lose it."

"Yes, which he didn't. It annoys him, though. Well, I guess it would annoy anyone, unless they're proud of it for some reason."

"You know, we celebrate Duel Monsters Spirit Day here. Then, people dress up in costumes and run booths and stuff, and it's a day off from class. I hope Zane doesn't have to wear anything embarrassing."

Alicia's eyes gleamed. "Why thank you, Jazz. Now, I'll have something to tease him about when the day approaches!"

She walked to class with them and took her seat in Banner's room. Alchemy confused her, that's for sure. To her, it was all a foreign language, and actually, some of it was. She wondered how a man of Banner's age, surely not over forty, could ever memorize so many things.

Jaden didn't ask any questions in the class, but one glance at him told her that it wasn't because he understood. Actually, she didn't really see Jaden when she looked down at his seat. She saw what looked like a black-eyed, lip-licking, face that had been drawn onto something. She looked again and saw that it was covering Jaden's head, meant to look like the Slifer was awake when he was sleeping with his head on his desk. Banner didn't say anything or look at him, but there was no way he could've missed it.

Mindy was gazing at Chazz, and two looks at the Obelisk were enough for Alicia, so she stopped looking in his direction. She had a quick feeling that he saw her the second time but she really hoped it was just her imagination. She did wonder how he noticed her and not Mindy who, as mentioned, was GAZING at him with starry eyes.

Class ended and Chazz approached her after the students were in the hall. She turned from walking and faced him, her eyes showing her impatience as she waited for him to say something. He wasted no time.

"I caught you looking at me in there," he said in his self-admiring voice that he used when trying to size someone up. "What do you need?"

"Not your attention, that's for sure," she responded coldly, turning and walking again. "Or your lousy breath where I can smell it. Get a breath mint, Chazz."

He snorted and caught up to her. "I saw you with Zane yesterday. You think you're good enough to actually date him? He's out of your league."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I wouldn't date him for anything less than the world's wellbeing. Two, you're probably just jealous that I got to see him and say something to him. It's all right, Chazz. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you admit your feelings for him. Then, he'll probably snuggle on up in your arms…"

Chazz blushed red with embarrassment and anger. "Shut up! I'm not gay, stupid girl!" He straightened. "I respect his ability as a duelist."

"Yeah, and his ability to turn you on, eh Chazz?" she walked quickly to class, knowing she'd arrive right before the bell rang, and since Chazz would never come in WITH her, he'd be late. "Let's see if you respect Crowler when he scolds you for being late."

He growled. He had managed to completely forget about class, and now he'd be late, and it was all her annoying fault! Chazz watched her walk down the hall, then started to class after her, WALKING. He knew it'd make him even more late, but really, the lousy Slifers that were no doubt roaming the halls lost couldn't see him in a state of hurry because of being late, now could they? No, to them, they would have to think that he was deliberately late.

Alicia watched as Chazz entered the room with his head high about three minutes after the bell had rung, a wide grin across her face. Crowler blinked in apparent surprise at how Chazz entered the room, seeming to be insouciant about his tardiness. He looked back to the rest of the class and resumed teaching while the two Obelisks sitting on either side of Chazz whispered to him, no doubt asking why he'd been late. The Obelisk shot her a death glare before answering them quickly in a sharp, annoyed whisper. Neither said anything more to him and refocused, not that Crowler's lesson was the center of attention.

"Chazzy looked at you!" Mindy whined as they left the room after class. "Why? You said you don't like him!"

"Mindy, it was a death glare, not a welcomed gaze. Really, there's a difference. He's just mad because I'm the one who held him up in the hallway and made him late."

"Oh, why would you do such a thing to poor Chazzy? Are you sure you just didn't want to be with him alone? If I had been in your position, I…"

"But you weren't in my position. I have nothing against you liking Chazz, but I don't care for him the least."

When it was time, they sat down outside on some benches to eat lunch, fond of the warm breezes that were there. Mindy was obviously still down about Chazz noticing her friend's uninterested and rare glances instead of her gazes, and she just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

"Do you guys think I should lose a few pounds?" she asked aloud. "Maybe if I were as thin as you, Alicia, he'd notice me. Maybe he thinks I'm fat."

Alicia dropped her fork, letting it fall into her small salad container. She blinked twice at the girl, as did Alexis and Jasmine.

"What kind of crazy talk is that?" she asked, scolding her in her concern. "First off, I am this way because back home, I didn't eat ENOUGH and the habit's stayed with me. Second, of course you're not fat! Mindy, if you want my opinion, Chazz doesn't notice you because he thinks he's too good for you."

Mindy's face fell. What had she done to seem so low? Well, maybe gazing with starry eyes all the time was a little creepy…

"But you know what? You should just shrug it off and not care what he thinks, because the truth's actually the reverse of what he thinks. He's not good enough for a great girl like you, but he's too vain to notice how much better you are than him."

"But I can't duel or anything, and I don't have all that much money, and my grades aren't exactly top of the heap. How am I better than him?"

"Those things don't judge a person, Mindy," she said with a smile. "You're a better person than him by far, and that's because you care about your friends, you're helpful, and you're just an all around nice girl. Chazz lacks the kindness that you have, and that's one thing that you have that he doesn't."

The black-haired girl's face brightened. She looked up and took a bite out of some egg bread that she had brought along.

"You're right! I'm getting myself down! Now that you say it so clearly, I can see that Chazzy isn't all that amazing after all. The only thing that's nice is his looks, and I can't build a relationship on that alone! At least, not with him I can't. Thanks Alicia, I'm through worshiping him!"

"Good for you, Mindy!" Jasmine cheered, though Alicia realized that she might also be happy about the fact that Mindy wouldn't talk for an eternity about the Obelisk anymore. "We're proud of you! You've made a good decision!"

"Yeah…" she said, springing up. "Yeah I have!"

The rest of the day went slowly, but at least Mindy was over her Chazz obsession. Alicia was proud of her for making such a reasonable and logical decision, that she shouldn't have to work so hard to get Chazz's attention when he really didn't deserve her anyway.

The brunette had stayed behind to read up on some material that the first years were being quizzed on the next day. It was alchemy, and she knew she had no chance of scoring above a seventy-five if she didn't reread the book. Now she was wondering about Jaden's question that he asked during the first alchemy class. What DID alchemy have to do with dueling? Sure, Banner had no doubt mentioned it time after time, but he never said anything that sounded entirely logical.

In an instant, she became aware of another presence in the library, as she had learned to tell by the small sounds. The skill had become useful back home, allowing her time to leave before Aaron or her father came in. The student rounded the corner and entered the section she was in, apparently looking for an alchemy book too. When she saw him, she stared, as did he.

"Why Zane, I didn't expect to see you here at this hour, or anytime, for that matter."

His eyes narrowed. "I was just thinking the same about you." He scanned the book she was reading. "Studying up, kid?"

"Of course I am. Now, you've got no right to make fun, sweetie, because in case you've forgotten, you're here too."

"I'm just doing an assignment early, that's all. Keep to your studying and I'll keep to my work."

She grinned. "You know I won't, Zanie. Why are you doing your work yourself? Doesn't your boyfriend love you enough to do it for you? Or is his head completely empty?" He glared, making her smile more. "Ooh, or maybe he wants something in return, eh?"

Zane blushed. "Shut up! I'll assure you that is NOT the reason I'm here!"

"Too pushy, is he?"

"Be quiet! You don't know what you're saying!"

"Of course I do, but you don't seem to know how to respond in your defense. If you haven't noticed, honey bun, you're telling me to shut up, but you've never denied any of my comments about you having a boyfriend."

He blushed a shade redder, his eyes flashing. "I don't have a boyfriend, Alicia. You're probably secretly attracted to me like all of those fan girls. I guess they don't all look alike."

"Zane, don't kid yourself. You attract GUYS like a magnet. I don't know what's with those 'fan girls', as you call them, but they must not be normal. I guess they have some screws loose in the head…"

"Well you're right about one thing, at least."

"That guys are drawn to you?"

"No! That the fan girls have some screws loose!"

Alicia giggled at how much he had blushed over the series of comments, the pink now on his cheeks standing out against the pale skin. She did have to admit it; the male Obelisk certainly was beautiful, but he also certainly looked like a girl, and he only needed to hear the second one from her. The first, she decided, would no doubt be told to him by each dreaming, risk-taking guy who asked him out.

She stood up, closed the book, and put it back on the shelf. She'd studied enough for then and anyone could tell that neither Obelisk would get anything done while they were both in the room, not that she cared about what he got done. He could use a blow to his perfect grades. Maybe it would even help with his snobby attitude. She shook her head. No wishing that big…

Her brown hair hit against his neck as she walked by him, planning to return to the dorms. He went on forward towards the shelf, trying to ignore the fact that he knew she'd turned around to look at him. Alicia grinned evilly.

"You're shaking it again."

He said nothing and concentrated on bending over and searching for the volume on the shelf. Sadly, he slightly crossed on knee over the other while kneeling and she saw it. He hadn't even realized that he'd done it.

"Girls sit like that."

Luckily, he had found the book and pulled it out, not expecting how heavy the large volume was. How could Banner lift it so effortlessly? Maybe the alchemy professor had memorized the book and the volume he carried around was actually fake and hollowed out to make it light? It was a little farfetched, but…

He dropped it on the table, resulting in a loud slam because of the book's weight. It had to be at least eight hundred pages. How could someone write so much about alchemy? All that seemed to be demonstrated in class was that you could blow yourself up, as Banner did in most experiments. He wished Atticus was there, as he surely would have enjoyed to see the events when they took place.

Alicia studied him as his eyes grew sad. She didn't like him, but she just couldn't turn away from those eyes. It was like they pulled her in, pulling her into the deep, blue pools that they were.

"Hey," she said, tapping the book that was sitting in front of him. "What's wrong with you?"

Her voice broke his somewhat trance-like state and brought him back to reality. He sighed and shook his head, trying to block his missing childhood friend out of his mind.

"It's nothing. Just go back to your room."

She turned and left, not bothering to say anything snappy, which she certainly could have if she really had wanted to, but she couldn't. The girl wasn't that cruel, not cruel enough to say something to make him feel worse on top of whatever it was already. She left the library and headed into her room, ready to prepare for going to bed, and hoping that no more nightmares would come that time.

* * *

Me: Well, there we have it! Anyway, I have a dilemma!

Zane: What is it? Oh yeah, is it the one that concerns me?

Me: Of course! As YOU know, Zane, I do want to put my FAVORITE pairing in here. Now, if EVERYONE begs me not to, I won't and maybe I'll do something else…

Zane: Well, don't ask me, because I don't have much of an opinion.

Me: Okay. Tell me all! (In case you don't know, my favorite pairing is listed on my profile page here)


	4. Chapter 4

Me: Chapter four begins! What'll Alicia do next?

Zane: Why bother asking? If I'm in the chapter, she's gonna be making more comments about me.

Me: Well, you apparently take it well in her eyes!

* * *

What Haunts My Past

Alicia walked to class as usual the next morning in her usual mood. She'd had her usual nightmare about her father and brother and though it came almost every night, she still felt that she could never get used to it.

"Hey Alicia!"

Jaden was running over, something that surprised her because he was usually late and barely on time for the first class of the day. Well, at least something wasn't usual about that day. Another glance told her that Syrus and Chumley were indeed not there and not just lagging behind their speedy friend.

"Hey Jaden," she answered coolly, her voice much different than Jaden's excited one. "Wow, you're usually not up so early. Where're Syrus and Chumley?"

His eyes widened after he blinked twice. Nervously, he turned around and chuckled shakily when the other two Slifers were not seen.

"Uh…. They were behind me a minute ago…"

In the distance, the two students heard voices, each voice sounding like it was shouting from far away. The voices became louder and soon two figures could be seen running towards. One was short while the other was hefty. No doubt about it, it was Syrus and Chumley. They panted upon reaching the other two.

"J-Jay…" Syrus breathed. "We don't have the same energy as you, you know…"

"Y-yeah…" Chumley added. "I didn't even have a single grilled cheese this morning, and that's my energy source!"

"Chum, I don't think one woulda helped you. Three grilled cheeses are like the minimum for you, isn't it? Well, I guess I didn't realize how fast I was really going there! I thought I was only good in dueling and never did I think of myself as a track star!" He made a victory sign. "Well, now I've got my backup career all sorted out!"

"Oh look, slackers in Obelisk territory. Can't you meet where the worthy can't see you?"

Chazz's voice was probably the most recognizable in the school because of it's snotty, edgy tone. Alicia turned to him, slightly surprised when she saw that Zane was with him. The third year didn't seem to be giving their little group much thought, but that wasn't surprising to her. Snobs didn't usually think much about the normal people. She grinned.

"Chazz, what a nice surprise. I see you've admitted your feelings for him? Now what did I tell you? Of course he'd accept them."

The black-haired Obelisk blushed, but she couldn't tell if it was out of embarrassment or anger. When he began shouting, she settled with both.

"Won't you drop that already? I did NOT admit my feelings for him!"

"Oh, so you do have them?"

"NO! I'm not gay you…"

Zane cut him off by simply sighing and shaking his head. He whispered something to him, something that was unheard by their group because of the fact that Zane's already soft voice was made even softer. He then looked at her.

"Do you really have to harass one of us each time you see us? Won't you tire of it?"

She smirked. "Probably not, sticky bun. If you haven't noticed, your boyfriend here is the one who started it this time, not me. Oh and, now I understand why you didn't get him to do your work last night. His brain's is even smaller than your stomach, which is about the size of three grains of rice, since that's all I really ever saw you eat."

Blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. The three Slifers watched the battle in amazement at the fact that Alicia truly had an amazing talent for getting under the other's skin. Even Zane was losing his patience with her, and for Syrus, that was VERY impressive. After Zane had gone cold, getting to him seemed impossible.

"He is not my boyfriend, Alicia," the cerulean-haired teen hissed. "As I told you last night, I don't have one."

"I thought about that and came to a very reasonable conclusion. Zane, you don't have A boyfriend, you have more than one, don't you." She looked over at Chazz. "I know it's hard to hear, Chazzy, but your girlfriend just isn't the faithful type."

Zane growled under his breath, not that it was unheard. With a quick swish of his hair, he strode away from the group, hoping he could just get away from her and be done with her insults for a time. Sure, Chazz would be on his own, but it's not like he was Chazz's mother or anything. The Obelisk would just have to fend for himself.

"Bye guys," the female brunette said to the Slifers, and probably Chazz. "I'll see you in class later!"

They watched as she skipped over to Zane, smiling a sugary-sweet smile that could only mean trouble for the older teen. A part of Syrus wanted to at least try to save his brother from Alicia's relentless teasing, but another part told him to let Zane be. Zane hadn't truly stuck up for him recently and he felt that he should learn what it's like to be driven mad by people's remarks. It's too bad for Zane that the side of his brother's that was against him outmatched the helpful one.

"Zanie!" Alicia sang as she followed him towards the school. "You know what I'm gonna say about your rear end!"

He blushed. "I'm sorry if the way I walk offends you! If you don't like it, don't look!"

"Where'd you learn to walk like that? Did your first boyfriend teach you?"

"I hate you…" he muttered, glaring ahead of him. He wouldn't give her the courtesy of looking her in the eyes.

"Hate is a strong word, sweet pea," she countered, shaking her head. "I know you don't mean it. After all, I don't hate you, I just sincerely dislike you and your snotty way of acting. You couldn't even give your brother a simple hello back there? Or even LOOK at him, maybe? God, what the Hell is wrong with you?"

"I've been through my fair share of dark events, okay? Just leave me alone about it. How I act around Syrus, or anyone, is none of your business, so shut it."

"I've been through my share of them too, but you don't see me acting like that. Well, I guess you do, but that's only to you and other brats, like Chazz. I just can't stand you both for what you are."

"Well if we're both so unlucky, let's share our tragic lives."

"Fine then. You first."

His eyes grew sad again, looking just like they did the night before when they were in the library. She waited patiently for him to continue, still unable to say anything when she saw those eyes. They pierced into the soul, making whoever gazed into them feel their pain.

"My best friend is gone."

She tilted her head to one side. "Gone? Like he moved away? Or is he, you know, GONE gone?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. He was here at the academy for almost two years, but then he said he had to visit a certain place on the island one day to help complete some research or something. He wouldn't tell me anything about it, seemed to want to keep me ignorant of something. The place still stands, as it has for years."

"What place?"

"The abandoned dorm. It's in a thick, dark part of the forest and off limits to students. My friend went there and he never came back, just vanished off the face of the Earth, along with several other students. No one has any idea where they went, and if someone does, no one's talking. I can't help but worry."

Alicia remained quiet for a few more moments, listening to how the Obelisk seemed to struggling to keep his expression calm as it always is. This friend of his, she wondered, was he perhaps more than a friend? Or at least, did Zane…? She didn't know, but she decided that then was not the time to ask him.

"Well," she began. "We're at least similar in one way, that being that we've both lost someone that we care about."

His eyes were closed. She sighed shook her head. She would cry in front of him, not him or anyone. She had this under control.

"I lost my mother three years ago."

She could tell he hadn't expected to hear that from her, but he still was as silent as a ghost. The morning wind picked up and blew her hair around her face and into her eyes, but she barely noticed. This was truly the first time in years that she would tell someone the cause of her mother's death, the reason why her father and brother hated her, and the person she was telling was someone she didn't even like.

"I was sick," she explained. "My mother was always kind. She practically never left my side when I was unable to get out of bed. I was grateful to her, grateful that she didn't just leave me alone since father was at work and Aaron, my brother, had to go to school. She wouldn't allow Aaron to come in anyway, though, afraid he'd catch the same thing." She paused. "I was grateful, as I said, but now I wish she HAD ignored me more at that time. I only wish I could have sent her away, because my mother developed the same illness as I, and she caught it from me.

Zane was still listening patiently, his sharp ears easily picking up the changes in her voice. It was hard for her to remember, and even harder to talk about it. He wished he hadn't said anything to make her tell him, but he knew it was too late now and he had to listen to her.

"My mother always had a weak immune system. She couldn't fight off the illness, even with medical help. We brought her to the hospital, but they said that due to her inability to fight off the illness, it became something new, something fatal. She died in the hospital after one week." She shook her head again. No crying… "My father and brother, they hate me now. They hate me because I'm the one who got my mother sick, the one who caused her to contract that fatal illness. Damn it, it's my fault that she's dead!"

She wiped her eyes quickly with her hand but the tears kept flowing. After her mother's death, she'd never really talked about how much she hated herself for the tragedy, how she believed her father and sibling when they told her it was her fault. If she had to break down, she just wished it weren't in front of Zane. She didn't know how he would react, but she looked up quickly when a delicate hand took hers.

He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her, his eyes sympathetic. She took it and wiped her eyes. Feeling better about it already, she grinned.

"You know, I should blow my nose on this just to spite you!"

His eyes shot open and lost their sympathy. He snatched the cloth and quickly put it back in his pocket, making her giggle because of his amount of worry. She smiled. Hey, just because he was able to give sympathy didn't mean she liked him. Nope, he'd still not done enough for her to get completely over her dislike because of his snobby way of doing things.

They each went down a separate hallway to get to class, realizing that they had better scurry or they'd be late, and for Zane, that'd be just about the end of the world. She shuffled away quickly, not running just in case someone saw, but stopped briefly upon hearing his voice.

"Alicia."

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry."

She smiled and would have said something, but she HAD to get to class on time. Why did alchemy have to be so early in the day? She wouldn't mind being late for Crowler's class as much, and that was because if she missed just one thing in alchemy class, she'd be totally lost.

"Oh that's right!" she said aloud as she rounded the corner and darted into the room just before the bell rang. "We have that test today!" She sat down in her seat and took out her pen. "Good thing I studied!"

* * *

Me: Chapter four is DONE!

Zane: I don't like the next chapter…

Me: I know, but you'll get over it. (Eventually…)


	5. Chapter 5

Me: Well, here we go! Time for the chapter you hate, Zane!

Zane: If you were I, you'd hate it too!

Me: Probably…

Disclaimer For Chapter: Do not own the entire theme here…

* * *

Darkness

As soon as she began the test, Alicia was doubly glad that she'd studied. Even though she HAD reread the book, some of the questions were long and deep, and something she'd really have to think about. Jaden didn't seem the least prepared and hit himself on the head over and over again as if trying to remember something he'd never known in the first place. Syrus was moping, his head down on his desk. She looked again.

"Either that or he's sleeping," she said to herself, beginning to answer the questions. She amazed herself with how much she had remembered and made a mental note to never forget to study in the class. A glance at Alexis and Jasmine showed that they were prepared as she, and Mindy seemed to be too. "She must've studied in the time she was in her room instead of fantasizing about Chazz."

Her thoughts about Syrus being asleep proved to be more correct as the bell rang and he didn't move a bit. Jaden shook his shoulders to rouse him, the boy lifting his head sleepily. His gray eyes snapped open wider when he realized that class was indeed over and he hadn't done anymore than sign his name on the paper.

"What'll I do? What if I can't retake this thing? I'll fail for sure!"

"Don't worry about it, Sy," Jaden said, smiling as he led the group of Alicia, Syrus, he, and Chumley out and to the next class. "I didn't do any better than you did."

"But I studied all night long!"

"Yeah, which is why you fell asleep instead of taking the exam. I told you not to push yourself so hard. You just gotta be like me! If you do well on the dueling exams, it'll keep your grade high enough so that they can't kick you out!"

Crowler announced the occurrence of a test the next morning, but when he didn't say the topic, a girl asked. He simply told them that the test would not be as important as a normal one and that was because it was a test on untaught material. He wanted to see how much the students already knew.

"Didn't we already take a written exam to get here?" Jaden asked, receiving death glares from the man and many Obelisks. "I mean, wouldn't that prove anything?"

"Perhaps for some, not including those who passed the exam by a generous point!" Crowler said sharply. "You will take the exam tomorrow! If it were my decision, all of you slackers would be out of this school already! Do you understand me?"

"Of course, teach! Why wouldn't I?"

Crowler gripped at the ends of his long sleeves. The Slifer was driving him insane, not that it was anything new. He'd despised him since the entrance exams, namely because he was defeated by him. How can it be? He, surely the top duelist amongst the teachers and the only one with a PHD in dueling, bested by a mere child? Impossible! Or rather, he would think so if he hadn't already been through the loss. No doubt the students remembered it well. How could any Obelisks ever completely respect him after his loss to such a poor student? Most importantly, how could Zane ever respect him as he did before?

He blocked the thoughts out of his head. He couldn't think such things! Zane had always looked up to him and one defeat would mean nothing! Crowler didn't even believe himself in this, that being because he knew Zane could judge harshly. All he could do was teach his class and move on, and hope that the Obelisk was not affected by Jaden's stunning victory.

Apparently, that week was favored for giving exams. Nearly every professor announced the coming of one in a day or two. Luckily for Alicia and as she was sure, many others, the alchemy exam had already taken place, so the only people who had to worry about it were those who had done so poorly that they would be obligated to come in after class in detention to do work to raise their grades. Of course, it's not that the work was very helpful to a struggling student and in no way was it easier than the work already assigned.

She dined in the Obelisk Blue dorms with Alexis, Mindy, and Jasmine and planned to take a walk outside after the meal. She asked the three girls if they wanted to go with her but each said they couldn't, saying they had work to do. Alicia had finished the work during the day and so she had nothing to do at home. She understood their reasoning and told them that she'd see them the next morning, as they'd surely not leave their rooms for the rest of the night.

The night sky was beautiful. Because there wasn't much light on the island, the silver stars could be seen with perfect clarity. The moon was full overhead and the temperature was lovely; cool but not chilling as it could be. A small sound caught her attention and she turned her head towards it, it being the light footsteps of another student, one she recognized easily.

"Zane!" she called, her voice barely above a whisper. Voices carried at night and she didn't need anyone hearing her and sending her back to the dorms. She knew he could hear her, but he didn't even look her way and continued walking, his path not leading in the direction of the lighthouse as usual. Instead, he seemed to be heading for the forest. She caught up to him, walking beside him. "Hey, don't be rude to me!"

He glanced at her briefly and sighed. She followed him, even as he continued on the path and entered the forest. The woods were almost pitch black in the darkness and the moon shone down on some parts, creating an eerie glow.

"Zane, where are we going?"

"You mean where am I going," he stated coldly, never tearing his eyes away from in front of him. "You weren't invited to accompany me, you know. If you can't figure it out, that's a hint to leave."

"I could figure that out. Fine then, where are you going that I am following you to?"

"If you must know, I'm heading to the abandoned dorm. If you just can't recall our conversation earlier today, that's…"

"It's the place where Atticus disappeared," she interrupted. "Alexis is his sister, right? Why isn't she here with you?"

He sighed. "Atticus and other students disappeared there, Alicia. It can't be safe and I don't want Alexis going there. As you know, Atticus and I are childhood friends, so Alexis is like a little sister to me."

"You think it's safe for you? Honestly, sugar bunny, I'm sure Alexis could fare better than you, my little stick figure."

Zane growled. "Are you no different? What do you weigh? Ninety-two?"

"Of course not. It's one-o-two and I'm five four. Let me guess you now. Hmm, five seven and about one-fourteen?"

"One-thirteen…" he said in annoyance. "So I may be a little underweight, so what? Do you really think there's gonna be anything there that would give us such trouble? You're probably just scared of that place because of rumors, and you should be because all the rumors you've heard are probably true."

"Really?" She grinned evilly. "Like the one about your first kiss taking place there?"

The teen blushed, a blush even seen in the dim lighting. "Not that one! Who told you that? Oh wait, never mind. You told yourself, didn't you?"

"But of course! Besides, I'm coming for a reason! When walking through creepy places, like this here forest, us twigs need to stay together. Of course we'll separate when we get there, though."

"Thank God…"

The walk was longer than she had thought it would be so she assumed that the dorm must truly be away from all else. Why would the school have a dorm in such a remote location? It didn't make sense to her, and it probably didn't make sense to a lot of people. When at last the building came into view, she barely kept from gasping. It was huge, around the size of the Obelisk dorm, however not nearly as nice. The front door was broken as were most of the windows and the place was covered in vines in some areas. The front grass was overgrown and all flowers that had once been planted there had died long ago. In front where a gate may have once stood was a sign that instructed people to keep out hanging on a chain that was stretched from on stone block to another. No doubt about it, that place was creepy.

"Why would anyone have to come here?" she asked aloud, hoping Zane would at least know something. He had told her of his ignorance to what Atticus was doing.

"I don't know," he said in a quiet voice, quieter than usual. "He never told me. He wanted to keep me away from this place, I just know it. When we heard about it, he went with another student to see it, but he told me to stay in my room. When I did come here once, that time being the first, he was angry when he found out and refused to speak to me for a time."

Alicia watched him as he sighed sadly, recalling the not-so-fond memories of the dorm.

"It sounds to me like he was trying to protect you. I don't know what he felt was here, but it was obviously something. His worry wasn't cured when he came here with that other student and he still kept you from here. Who was the other?"

"I can't remember, but I do know that they are one of the missing students."

As planned, they separated upon entering. Zane stayed on the first level while the girl headed upstairs to look around. She entered a room, then finding that it was a bedroom. The room was covered in dust and the curtains and blankets were torn, but she could see that the room had once been lovely, a place she wouldn't have minded living in. An object on the nightstand caught her eye. She headed over and picked it up, quickly realizing that it was a picture. After blowing the dust off of it, she studied the student pictured.

He had a confident smile on his face and wore a uniform that looked the same as Zane's, so she figured he must've been someone important in the school, must have because she had never seen him around. Except for the uniform, he looked nothing like Zane. He had brown hair and eyes to match with slightly tanned skin. He, unlike Zane, looked like a male and didn't have the same thin shoulders as the cerulean-haired teen. As she looked closer, she noticed that there had once been a signature no doubt identifying him, but it had been erased.

"I wonder if Zane knows who he is," she said to herself. "I'll take this along and…"

A piercing scream interrupted her thoughts. Her eyes snapped open as wide as they could and she rushed out of the room, dropping the picture on the nightstand in her haste.

"Zane!"

There was no doubt that it was the male Obelisk who had screamed. She darted down the stairs and if she weren't in such a hurry, she would have marveled at how quickly she reached the bottom without falling. She rounded a corner, running into a room that seemed to have once been like a parlor.

"Zane? Where are you? Zane!"

A small object on the ground caught her eye. She bent down and picked it up, her brown eyes widening. It was Cyber Dragon, a card that she knew only Zane used out of everyone in the school. She looked farther down the room, spotting a doorway leading into a dark hallway. She stood up and entered the hallway, glancing around.

"Zane? Are you here?"

She left the corridor and entered the room it led to, apparently the basement. The walls had strange markings on them, as did the floor, but her attention. She gasped. Against the wall on the far side of the room was an open coffin and Zane was resting inside it. His eyes opened slightly and his voice was weak.

"A…li..cia…"

A golden light came from that side of the room. The female Obelisk heard a familiar shriek come from Zane before she screamed herself as the light grew brighter. When it dimmed, Zane was unconscious and a man stood opposite her on the far side, grinning darkly.

"Well see here, a girl has found her way into my domain. What could you be searching for?"

The brunette blinked twice. He was huge, standing at least six foot five. He was broad-shouldered and had a face that resembled chiseled stone because of its hardness. His eyes, however, were hidden behind a gray mask that concealed his face and hung like short fangs over his mouth. She immediately noticed the large duel disk on his muscular arm and steadied herself.

"A duelist, eh? You're not going to score too many points with this school if you don't let him go."

He grinned. "Oh forgive me, I thought him female when I took him. I'm not trying to score points, dear girl."

She saw that he was kidding about thinking the Obelisk was female and waited for him to continue, for she didn't know what to say to him.

"He's the top student here, isn't he? Just think of what this place will do to get him back." He moved over to Zane and ran a hand over his cheek, obviously lightly scratching his pale face. "Different than I would've imagined their best to be, though."

Her stomach did a somersault as she watched. Zane didn't deserve this! But what could she do to help him? She remembered that she had brought her deck with her and raised it, showing him and finding her voice.

"You're a duelist, so why don't you duel me? If I win, you let Zane go!"

"No. Sorry, my dear, but I cannot waste my time with you. I seek another, a student by the name of Jaden Yuki. He is the only one I shall duel, so if you can bring him here, I may spare your friend. However, if you are unsuccessful, his soul will be mine."

"His soul?"

"Yes dear," he said. He held up a pendant that was around his neck and fell down over his chest. "This dear is a dark item, possessing a dark power. Your friend's soul resides in the realm of shadows now, and if Jaden cannot free him, he will be lost."

She was frozen. No part of her believed the story about Zane's soul being gone, but the male teen was still in the strange man's clutches. She turned on her heels and ran from the basement, his dark laughter burning into her mind as she raced out of the dorm and to the Slifer's room. She had to find Jaden and he had to help Zane. Of course, she knew he would, judging by the fact that Syrus, Jaden's best friend, was Zane's brother. She rushed up the stairs and pounded on the door.

"Jaden! Syrus! It's Alicia! Please, open the door!"

The door flew open, allowing her to enter and then steady herself with her hands on her knees as she panted from the run.

"Alicia!" The brown-haired Slifer exclaimed, patting her back. "What's wrong?"

Alicia stood up and looked them in the eyes. "I-it's Zane!"

Syrus jumped out of the chair he was sitting in, his eyes widening as he heard his brother's name. She continued.

"I know it's not allowed for either of us, but when Zane went to the abandoned dorm, I tagged along, not that he wanted me to. I was looking around upstairs when I heard him scream from the parlor. When I ran in, he was gone. I investigated the basement and he was lying in a coffin." They gasped. "He's not dead. A strange man appeared. He said Zane's soul was gone, but I still don't believe him about it. He's obviously a duelist, but Jaden, he said he'd only duel you, and that you were the only one who could possibly save Zane!" She shook her head. "You have to come!"

"We've got detention study tonight," Chumley said, his eyes showing his concern.

"I don't care!"

Syrus' outburst gained everyone's attention. All eyes locked on him and it seemed that all noise had stopped except for his breathing and words.

"Detention doesn't matter now! My bro's in there with some crazed duelist and he needs our help! Jay, this isn't something you can walk away from!"

To his apparent surprise, his friend was already almost completely out the door. Jaden began to run, and by the path he took, he was obviously going to the dorm. The remaining three darted after him, not reaching him on the trail, but meeting up once they reached the mysterious place.

The man was still by Zane's side, smirking at his unconscious face. He caressed his cheek again with one of his large hands and spoke to himself in a taunting voice, the same voice that he had used with the girl.

"Your friends are perhaps coming, child. What a shame…"

"Take your hands off him!"

He turned his head at the loud shout from the room's entrance. He instantly knew which was Jaden, judging by his hirer's description of him; brown hair, brown eyes, and a very strong personality with confidence to match.

"Jaden, welcome. I have been waiting for you…"

"Alright you!" Jaden said heatedly. "Let Zane go!"

"As I'm sure the girl has told you, his soul belongs to the shadows now. I hope you've brought your deck, because you're the only one who has the slightest chance of winning him back, not that your chance is much of one. I will defeat you and he will be gone forever from you."

Syrus sucked in his breath and the three watched as the duel began. Jaden was determined to win, as always, but his opponent was certainly no pushover. The man dueled with much expertise, and for a moment, Alicia doubted that Jaden would be victorious. She shook off the thoughts and concentrated on the tug on her arm instead.

"Can't we get my brother out of there?" Syrus whispered.

She nodded. "I might be able to…"

And so her mission began. She crept by the dueling pair, making sure the man was too occupied to notice her slipping by, and made her way over to Zane. She had just touched his arm when the masked duelist turned his head to her, his face forming a cold smile.

"Impatient, are we?"

Before she could move, the coffin door slammed closed on her, trapping her with Zane inside. She screamed at the hard bump it gave her to push her inside, the sudden darkness, and the fact that she was stuck inside a coffin with someone she disliked. It became very quiet and she felt her eyes closing, though it couldn't become any darker than it was. Silently, she hoped the male Obelisk wouldn't wake up…

It was much lighter when she awoke. Alicia groaned and put a hand to her head, realizing that she was outside with sunlight filtering through the forest trees as her eyes adjusted to the new scenery. What had happened?

"You're awake! Man, we were worried about you!"

Jaden's voice was reassuring in more ways than one. First, it proved that he was safe and two, it proved that he'd probably won the duel and so she and Zane were safe. She looked around. Syrus was holding a still-unconscious Zane in his arm, worrying over his older brother. She blinked as the short boy's gray eyes lit up, a sign that the teen was coming to.

"Syrus?" he asked aloud. "What happened to me?"

"You were in a coffin when Alicia found you. She brought us and during the duel between your abductor and Jaden, the coffin closed on her and you both were locked inside. Also, the both of you were out cold when we found you."

Realization and remembrance hit him. He sat up by himself, standing soon afterwards.

"That's right! I was looking around in the parlor and saw the basement door, but when I went to look…" He shook his head. ""Everything's blank from there. I remember a light and then I must've blacked out. Hey wait…" He stared at Alicia. "I was locked in a coffin with you? That's overrated!"

"It's better than having whoever that guy was touch you, ne?" she said, flipping her hair back as she rose to her feet and smiled at him. "He seemed perfectly fine touching your face, because he did it more than once, dearie. Oh what can you say? I TOLD you that you were magnetic!"

He blushed again. When he returned to his dorm, he'd wash his face four times, no, FIVE times, and all to get rid of anything that guy might've had on him. Gross, why was it always him? Of course, these kinds of things didn't happen too much, but…"

"I'll see you guys later," he said, turning and beginning to leave. "No doubt it's early and I can't miss class, and neither can you." He didn't say anything until he was almost out of sight. Suddenly, he stopped. "Uh…thanks…"

Alicia smiled as she watched him leave. She wouldn't tell him how much, but she was relieved to see him safe from that man. Of course, if she was in the mood to ruin the moment, all she'd have to say was…

"Hey Zane! Shaky, shaky, shaky!" Who could blame her? He was asking for it…

* * *

Me: Chapter's done, Zane!

Zane: Thank God… You locked me up with her! EWW!

Me: Suck it up, crybaby! You'll get over it!

Zane: Fine…"

Me: Please not! I know this event, though based on the very show, is different from the show! Don't yell at me, please! It IS fanfiction, after all! I have a chapter disclaimer! Besides, I'm not in love with how this one turned out anyway!


	6. Chapter 6

Me: Next chapter! Sorry it took longer than the others.

Zane: Hey, you were swamped with work…

Me: Too true…

* * *

Crime and Punishment

It was a bright morning day. The birds were chirping, the skies were clear, and the temperature was warm yet cool at the same time. Students walked around the campus of Duel Academy leisurely, enjoying the day off from class. What luck that their break would be on such a day!

Two students, both dressed in the rich yellow of their Ra Yellow standing, enjoyed their walk when it was abruptly interrupted. A slim figure dashed past them, no, through them, as they walked side by side. The girl's brown hair whipped behind her in her run and not once did she even consider saying a simple polite apology to the students whom she had so rudely pushed aside in her haste. Both duelists glanced at each other in confusion. Who would be in such a hurry on such a day? And so early in the morning?

The brunette raced through the school hallways and up the flights of stairs. Any student in her way was pushed aside as roughly and quickly as the first two had been, and she smiled when she thought she saw Chazz stumbling against the wall, having been pushed. Sadly, her smile faded. She had no time to tease him now, not when Jaden and Syrus were in the situation they were in, an unfair one at that.

The door to the chancellor's room seemed to take an eternity to open, and once it did, she swallowed nervously. In her surprise at the recent news, she hadn't really thought of WHAT to say after she ran to the bald man's office. He blinked at her, confused at her need to see him so quickly.

"Chancellor…" she panted. "About Jaden and Syrus…I can explain…"

He smiled gently at her then raised a hand. Only then did she notice another presence in the room, a large boy with small eyes and a huge nose. Chumley was obviously there for the same reason she was and she sighed, hoping that maybe two people could change the mind of the chancellor.

"He arrived here shortly before you did," the man explained. "And with the same intentions. Alicia, tell me, why have you come?"

"I think perhaps she is too exhausted from the long run here to speak at the current moment."

The soft voice from the door gained everyone's attention. The chancellor gasped, not expecting the top student to appear in his office. Zane had his usual calm attitude about him, but in his eyes, the girl could see that he was worried about something. It wasn't hard to guess that the something was his brother, and the fact that he and Jaden were to be in a duel and expected to win. If they lost, they would embrace being expelled from the academy.

"Zane? This is certainly an unexpected surprise. I may be able to guess why you have come, but speak anyway."

"I have come to speak on behalf of my brother," he answered coolly. "Please chancellor, don't punish the Slifers. I know it may not seem believable, but they have done nothing wrong. Chancellor, they came to the abandoned dorm to save me and I can't see that as wrong."

"To save you? From what, may I ask?"

Zane and Alicia exchanged glances, giving the action of lying some serious thought. Whoever that man had been, he did not seem to be searching for Jaden because of personal wishes, but more as if someone else had hired him to do so. He nodded.

"From something I was foolish to get myself into. I ended up trapped somewhere I never meant to be."

The man sighed, leaning back in his chair and resting his arms on his desk. "I see."

"And," Alicia put in. "Zane and I were the ones who went first, and I'm the one who went to the Slifer dorm to get help. Please, if this duel can't be avoided, let us be the ones to duel and not them."

"I'm sorry," he said. "But we have already agreed to this. Jaden and Syrus will be the ones participating in the duel and the only way to avoid it is to leave the school by choice. They are facing professional duelists in a tag match, and though I do personally consider such a match up unfair, I will not interrupt it."

Alicia felt her hope deflate. It was clear that the man was going to stay true to his final word, and true to his punishment as well. Why wouldn't they listen? If not to her than surely Zane could have some input on his brother's behalf, with him being the top student and all. Of course, Sheppard had admitted to believing the duel to be wrong, but was he simply too weak to put his foot down and stand for what he believed?

"The duel will commence at three o' clock this evening," he told them. "I would like to encourage you to be there, as Jaden and Syrus will no doubt benefit from your presence and support."

The girl said nothing. She turned on her heels and left, walking out the door without so much as glancing at any of the room's other occupants. To them, it seemed like she was simply going to think until the match, but while she would be doing some thinking on her errand, she did not plan to see the entire duel. Actually, if these hired duelists were really top-grade professionals, she didn't really plan on seeing any of the match. As much as she hated to believe it, she couldn't tell herself that Jaden and Syrus would be victorious. The odds were just too against their favor.

"I can't do this, Jay…" Syrus mumbled weakly as he followed his more hopeful friend to the duel arena. "They're gonna knock me out faster than a speeding bullet would, and then you'll lose too!"

"Cheer up, Sy!" his friend said, stretching. "You'll do just fine. Besides, our friends are gonna be out there cheering us on. I'll tell you, it's hard to lose when being cheered for by someone, and even harder when it's the plural of someone!"

Though kind and spirited, the brunette's words did nothing to ease the shorter boy's worries. He walked to the stage and stood where he knew he must, nervousness radiating off of him. He scanned the audience and was pleased when he saw Bastion, Alexis, Chumley, and… He blinked more times than he could count, not that he was going to be one to try. Zane's deep blue eyes were locked on him and he didn't see the cold, domineering sibling that his brother had become earlier. He watched intently as the older teen's lips moved, saying words silently to him.

'I'm sorry.'

Syrus shook his head as a gesture to tell Zane that it wasn't his fault. He then scanned the audience again and continued to scan it over and over, not seeing one person who he truly thought he would have. Where was Alicia? She had been the one to bring them to the dorm, one to venture in first. Why had she not come? If cheering wasn't her thing, she could have at least stood and watched. After all, she couldn't know if she'd ever see them again.

"Now, let us introduce our students' opponents! The Paradox Brothers!"

The Slifer was snapped back into focus at the loudspeaker's voice. They must have already announced the duel and he figured he'd just missed the first part of it, not that he cared much, as it was more like addressing a death warrant.

The two brothers, obviously twins, leapt up at the same time, flipping twice in the air and landing in unison. Both were bald and had a mark on their foreheads, the marks different. One wore green while the other wore orange and even though this was so, it would still be next to impossible to tell them apart. He sighed.

"Let's do this…"

Alicia had walked calmly by herself until she reached the edge of the forest, then she ran. Her legs carried her over fallen logs and through the woods as she sprinted onward. She had not taken the main path, as she didn't want to risk being seen by anyone.

She had to return to the dorm. Her visit would be short and she would stay far from the parlor and certainly the basement, heeding the events that had taken place there. If the girl had told anyone why she was going back, they would consider her foolish, perhaps even crazy, but inside she needed to go. It was that photograph; the picture of that Obelisk Blue student that had been in the bedroom.

She arrived at the dorm, feeling a slight chill as she approached it. Never would she like the place, but she wouldn't fear it. There was nothing there to worry about anymore, not since that man had gone. She was better assured of this when she entered and saw that the room was as dusty as it had been since the day she and Zane came there, maybe even dustier, proving that no one had come.

The brunette made sure to be careful while walking up the steep, rickety flight of stairs. They hadn't fallen before, but anything could happen in an old, unused, and deserted building that had held its status for years. It felt wrong not to appear in the audience at Jaden and Syrus' match, as it would probably be their last, but her curiosity had truly gotten the best of her. She needed to know who that student was and somehow felt that Zane would know the answer.

She entered the room and picked up the frame from the desk, located in the last place she'd left it. Once again, she looked it over. A gleam in the boy's eyes gained her attention and she couldn't help but feel that she'd seen someone before who looked very much like him. The eyes were familiar, but as for everything else, it was as unknown as a foreign land.

She smiled sadly. "Who are you, mystery student? Why do you look so familiar?"

With that, she turned and ran out of the dorms with the picture. The forest and path to the school seemed much shorter as she passed the scenery around her without any thought as she raced to the duel, hoping it was not yet over. Her rush was for two reasons; one, she had to show Zane the picture, and two, she wanted to see at least a little of the duel if at all possible, even if it were just the sight of the Slifers' life points hitting rock bottom.

Zane studied her when she ran in and over to him, then looked away sharply, annoyed. The girl who had brought Jaden and Syrus to the dorm didn't even have the courtesy to appear at the duel on time? How rude.

She glared when he turned away. "Mad because I'm late, pretty boy? Well get over it." Alicia walked to the edge, her eyes widening as she saw the monster that her friends' opponents had out. "What the Hell is that?"

"It's Dark Guardian," he said dryly, not looking her way. "They explained its abilities but sadly you weren't here to learn of them. Truly a pity, eh?"

"Shut up. If it hadn't been for you, they wouldn't be in this mess. We could've all lived on but no, you just had to be kidnapped by a lunatic hired to get rid of Jaden…"

"It wasn't my fault. He grabbed me from behind and dragged me down there. What was I supposed to do? He was three times my size!"

"You'd better make that four."

He sighed. "Three, four, whatever. My point is that there was nothing I could do! If it had been my choice, I wouldn't have let Syrus and Jaden come for me, but as you know, I was unconscious in a coffin and didn't have much say in the matter."

She ignored him and tossed her hair. Her attention had gone to the duel and made her smile wider with each moment that passed. The duel had turned around and soon the Paradox Brothers, as she'd heard they were called, were staring defeat right in the face. A pair of life points hit zero and she gripped the railing, pushing herself up on it.

"Yes!" she cheered. "Syrus! Jaden!"

They looked her way, happy to know that she, one of their friends, HAD indeed showed up in the end, and just in time to see them win. The girl giggled when the two victors were assigned writing assignments to take the place of punishment and when Jaden crumpled to the floor, obviously not a writer at heart.

Zane nodded quickly to Syrus from where he stood and turned, walking out of the arena. Alicia rolled her eyes and smiled, waving once more before following him. It annoyed her to no end how Zane couldn't even stick around for a little to congratulate his brother on the simply amazing victory, but then again, she didn't stay either. If he had, she would have as well, but she needed to show him the picture and hopefully receive an answer as soon as possible. She'd apologize to Jaden and Syrus later for departing so quickly and for not coming on time.

She walked alone in the halls, heading for where she felt the older teen had gone; his room. Her judgement proved to be correct when she arrived in time to catch him disappearing inside. No other students stood outside the dorms, so she made her way inside, checking as she rounded each corner so she wouldn't be seen by someone. Zane's room wasn't hard to find, as plenty of girls in the school often conversed about him and his room number came up more than once. The girl rapped on the door hard, no longer caring if anyone came, though she figured they wouldn't because the halls had been practically deserted.

"Zane, I know you're in there."

"Can't you leave me alone for once in your life, Alicia? I thought you'd be congratulating Jaden and Syrus."

"Which is where I thought you would be," she said flatly. "Now open the damn door. I have something to show you."

Her ears picked up annoyed grumbling from the other side of the door, but it opened nonetheless to reveal a very agitated Zane. She smiled sweetly at him when he stepped aside to let her in. However, he closed the door quickly after she entered, allowing it to hit her and knock her in.

"Oh, clumsy me…" he muttered when she glared.

Not caring, she glanced around the room and then took a seat on the couch, humming to herself. "Well, nice room, I guess, but no better than ours."

"What do you want? Show me what you came to show me or get out. And by the way, I'm so glad you've taken the liberty of making yourself comfortable without asking."

She shrugged. "Hey, you owe me for helping to get you out of that dusty old coffin, so this'll help repay me. Anyway, I do have something to show you, but I don't think you can see it from so far away. Come over here, sweetie, and I can show you."

He did so, muttering about how unfair she was. Sitting down on the couch, but making sure to sit at least a whole foot away from her, he waited for her to show him the thing she claimed to be so important that she'd follow him to his room for.

"Well?"

"Impatient, are we? Fine, it's this."

She held up the picture of the student for him to see. To her slight surprise, his eyes widened and he blinked multiple times, his mouth slightly agape.

"Where did you get that?" the Obelisk asked softly, his tone due to his surprise. "Tell me…"

"I found it in the abandoned dorm in an upstairs bedroom," she explained. "I had to leave it there when you screamed, but I went back today to get it. That's why I wasn't at the duel. His uniform looks like yours, so I was wondering if you could tell me who he is. Somehow he looks a little familiar."

Zane didn't reply right away. He reached out and touched the thin glass on the frame with a shaky hand, silent. Confused, Alicia handed the frame to him to hold. When he did finally speak, it was a voice she had to strain to hear, as it was one of the softest, quietest things she'd come across.

"Atticus…"

She tilted her head to the side. "This is your friend who went missing? And Alexis' brother?" He was silent. "Well, that would explain the familiarity, and perhaps where he went."

Zane shook his head. Without taking his eyes off the picture, he spoke almost as quietly to her again. "Please leave…"

Normally she would've been insulted by his blunt statement, but she could see that the teen was deeply affected by the revelation of the photo. Nodding, she stood and left, closing the door softly behind her. Still, unbeknownst to him, she put an ear against the brown door and listened. A soft, nearly silent sound was heard, the sound of someone sobbing quietly, followed by a voice.

"Atticus…you went to that place." He sniffled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

At that moment, she stopped listening and turned away from the student's door, walking quickly through the halls and out of the dorms, lost in thought. Whether Zane and Atticus were just close friends or something more, she wasn't sure of, but whatever they were, the brunette's disappearance had obviously affected the other deeply.

"Maybe…" she said to herself as she walked along outside in the still sunny afternoon. "Maybe that's why he can be so unbearable…" She sighed, then looked up, smiling again. "Well whatever his reason, it can't be one good enough to make his attitude all right, and though I won't bother him when he's so down, I will never agree with his personality!"

* * *

Me: Done at last!

Zane: Can't she be just a LITTLE sympathetic!

Me: She is, a LITTLE.


	7. Chapter 7

Me: Here I am AGAIN. After I was on the third page of this here chapter, I told my computer to save it before turning it off, but my sweet, spawn of Hell laptop decided not to, so I LOST IT! Damn this computer!

Zane: She's ticked off…

Me: YES I AM! BTW: There's a 95 percent chance that this'll be a story with a slash pairing. I don't wanna offend anyone, so here's the warning! No flames please!

* * *

A Spoken Mistake

Alicia woke the next morning, her mind still on Zane's reaction the day before. Sure, he had said that Atticus was his best friend, but his reaction still seemed a little strong to her…

_"Not that I'd know," _she told herself. _"I never had a best friend."_

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed for the bathroom to take her morning shower. The water was hot, as usual, and for a moment she just stood, waiting as the water tried to wash her troubling thoughts away. She sighed when it couldn't and washed quickly, wanting to arrive at the school long before the first bell.

The temperature outside was crisp and the air fresh as she walked out and inhaled the morning scent. Birds chirped happily, as always, as they flew from their nests in the trees surrounding the dorms. They were always happy, as if their lives had no troubles in them. She knew life was far from perfect for anything that possessed it, so why did the birds seem so unaffected? They were certainly better at hiding their worries than a human, for their song never portrayed the least bit of sadness and worry.

"I wish I could be like that," she said aloud. "To not let anything seem to bother you, to smile in whatever situation, that'd be cool. Maybe I'd even feel better myself. Of course, maybe I'd feel worse, like I'm all cooped up inside myself…"

A quick breeze brushed by as another student passed, not giving the slightest indication that he knew she was there, as he seemed to ignore her very existence. She glared because of the fact that he'd pushed her and not said anything and quickened her pace to catch up with him.

"You know, you could at least say excuse me. It's only polite."

He stopped and turned to her, aggravation showing in his cerulean eyes. "Oh forgive me. I was under the impression that politeness wasn't a necessity, as you said absolutely nothing when you pushed half of the school out of your way yesterday.

"I was in a hurry and you know it, pretty boy! I see you're as snotty as ever today."

"Oh what a greeting…" he muttered. "Can't you leave me alone just once? I'm not in a good mood."

"Anyone and everyone can tell, Miss Obvious. Yes, I know it's Captain Obvious, but I think Miss suits you better."

"Shut up! I'm not a girl and you know it, along with the rest of the school! I can't help the way I look, Alicia!"

"Apparently not, or the way you walk and sit, eh?"

"You don't have to comment! Actually, you don't have to watch if it bothers you so much!"

She put her hands on her hips. "Listen honey, I don't say what I do BECAUSE you look like that. I say what I do because you're a snot-nose brat and a snob. The way you walk, look, and sit are things I can use against you, so I use them to their full extent as insults."

"I never started any of this with you, Alicia! You've been against me from the moment you saw me! If you want me to be kinder, why don't you try being nice for a change? How can I be kind to someone who insults me to my face every day?"

"I don't want you to be nice or simply even-tempered towards me! When I look at you, I see someone I'd rather not and I don't want you to just put on an act to try and make me like you more because it won't work anyway. I want you to keep acting like the bastard you are so I will always have reason to act the way I do!"

"Have reason? You must be joking! If I remind you of someone then that's something I can't help! You have no right to hold what they've done against me! I don't even know them!"

"I have plenty reason! You've never tried to make anything better, thank God, because then you'd be living a lie. Zane Truesdale is not a sweet, caring kid who's out to help anyone he can. You're not a nice person, Zane, and people should learn that."

"I've been here for years and never has anyone spoken to me so coldly! Why you?"

"Because everyone else is shaking in their boots when you walk by, though I'm still confused about how a twig manages to scare the entire school into silence about your attitude problem."

"I do not scare the school," he said sharply. "They haven't said anything to me because they probably don't consider it true! Who else besides you feels the same way, that you know of for a fact?"

"Why do you even need to ask? Maybe you got worse after Atticus' mysterious disappearance, but seeing you now, I don't wonder why he left! God, what more of a hint do you need? He probably left because you drove him insane and he was too much like his sister when it came to kindness! He was too kind to tell you!"

The Obelisk froze, his eyes opened as wide as they could go. His mouth was open, but barely so, and he stared at the ground. Alicia immediately wished that she hadn't let her anger get the best of her.

"Maybe…" he muttered.

With that, he took off towards the school in a run, a run that, she felt, could only be done by a track star. Guilt washed over her like a raging river and she took off after him in a hurry.

"Zane wait! I didn't mean that!"

As fast as she could run, she still wasn't able to catch up with him. He was gone from her sight long before she reached the doors and so she sat down on the ground where a passing student wouldn't see her and punched the side of the school.

"Damn it! Why did I have to lose it? I know it's not true! Atticus wouldn't have left because of Zane but Zane seems ready to embrace that as the answer to the mystery behind his disappearance! God, I feel like crap…"

The first bell rung and she stood and entered the school on wobbly legs. She reached the classroom and slumped in her seat. Alicia sensed that Alexis and the others were watching her, but she hadn't the heart to look at them. She couldn't, especially Alexis and Syrus. She couldn't bear to look at someone so close to Zane after what she had done.

Dr. Crowler's words seemed to slur together during the class and those that didn't sounded like a foreign language, which she was sure they were not. She hit her head on the desk in front of her with a silent groan in her guilt.

"Alicia!"

She groaned again and sat up in a more normal sitting position, realizing that it had probably been the third time Crowler had said her name by the strong lack of patience and annoyance present in his voice. He tapped his heel.

"Yes sir?"

"Glad to see you're awake, Alicia," he said icily. "Now name one spell card and two monster cards that increase the power of winged beast monsters!"

"Ugh… Harpie's Hunting Ground, Harpie Lady 1, and Birdface…"

"Why thank you. Maybe next time it would be better without the groan in the beginning." A few students snickered.

"Sorry sir."

"You don't look so good, but more importantly, the other students seem to be paying more attention to your state than to my class! Please go to the infirmary."

She nodded and stood up, trying her best to look sturdy on her shaky legs, before walking out of the room. The hallway was long and deserted to her delight, as she would hate to have to practically fight her way through if it was between classes and have random people ask her what was wrong if they were just out of class for some unknown reason.

The infirmary's green door slid open as she walked inside and Fonda Fontaine hurried over, serving as the nurse.

"Alicia! What is it?"

"Dr. Crowler said I didn't look well," she replied in a slight daze, half her mind focused on Zane and how he felt at the moment. "He sent me down here. But really, I feel fine."

The red-head put a hand to her forehead. "Well, you don't seem to have a fever but your face is a little flushed. I'll get the thermometer anyway, of course. Just sit there and I'll be back real soon!"

The girl sat in the indicated chair, a comfortable one at that, and waited for the teacher's return. Fonda came back as quickly as she had said she would and took her temperature. She shook her head when it was done.

"Your temperature's normal," she reported. "But if Dr. Crowler sent you, he probably doesn't expect you back. You'll stay here until the next class and then you'll go. Oh wait, you have tennis next…"

"That's all right, Miss Fontaine. I can play next class."

Alicia had always enjoyed tennis. Back home, she'd go down to the park on sunny Saturdays with Aaron and they'd stay there for hours. He had taught her to play when she was seven and had continued to teach her and play with her until their mother's death. That was when he started to despise her under their father's influence and so he of course no longer played. After that, she'd go down to the school and hit the ball against the wall, playing against herself.

"Well all right. If you need anything, just holler!"

The brunette barely noticed the woman leave, her mind focused on Zane. She wanted to apologize more than anything else, but she didn't know how. Also, she didn't know if she could. She almost knew for a fact that she wouldn't be able to say anything to him if he cried. For some reason, his tears ripped open her heart and made her want to run from them and block the sight out of her mind.

"Miss Fontaine? Can I ask you something?"

It was a logical thing to do in her mind; ask about what to do. Fonda was older and probably went through a similar situation in her life, so no doubt she'd be of at least some help. The woman was by her in a second with a smile on her face.

"Yes?"

She took a deep breath. "Have you ever said something cold to someone you didn't mean? And that comment hurt them deeply because it was about something you should have never brought up?"

The nurse sighed and nodded, taking a seat in another nearby chair. "We all do things like that, Alicia. Nobody's perfect in this world and every one of us makes a mistake at least once in their life. Everyone lets their anger take control at least once. It's only a part of being human to let our emotions go too far. Did that happen?"

"Yes. I don't know what to say to him. He won't speak to me, I don't think, and with good reason. Actually, I don't know if he'll speak to anyone. What I said was a direct hit on a sore spot in his heart and I don't know if it's something he can forgive so easily."

"Everything can be forgiven if you apologize and give it time, and not do it again if avoidable. I know it can be scary, but you need to apologize to him and say to him what you want to say, even if he seems not to listen and even if it seems to make it worse at first."

"I can't see him crying. I see him crying and I break. I don't know why though."

Fonda smiled. "Perhaps you care for him more than you realize?"

She sighed. "If you mean like a crush, Miss Fontaine, I don't think so. It's just something about him, like his sorrow can be felt by others."

"Perhaps it is not him but instead you. You could be slightly empathic, Alicia. Yes, I know some say that is just a rumor and not at all possible, but I think it is. What about you?"

"Maybe…"

The bell rang to announce the end of the period and Alicia stood quickly, ready to go to the next class. She walked with Fonda, as the woman was the teacher of the class anyway. The gym was filled with students, one of which who didn't look like he was in their grade. His reddish hair was cut short in the front and she had to admit that he was a little cute, but she was more fascinated by his skill with the racquet.

"All right class!" Fonda said, gaining their attention. "Partner up now!"

They did so, and by some intervention of fate, the unknown boy was Alicia's partner. He flashed her a bright smile.

"Name's Harrington!" he introduced himself. "And yours?"

"Alicia," she answered, not saying her last name because he hadn't.

The ball was hit back and forth between them and Alicia became aware that many of the other students watched them instead of playing their own game. She smiled as she hit the ball speeding past Harrington on the court, an act that would have given her a point if the match were formal. Aaron had been on the tennis team and had taught her well.

The game continued much longer than anyone else's and the numbers in the audience increased steadily until it felt like everyone in the room was there. Harrington hit the ball past her twice and barely blocked another from her before raising his eyebrows and rubbing the back of his neck, signaling end of the match.

"You're good, I'll say!" he said pleasantly. "Where'd you learn?"

She kept her head down. "My brother taught me for years."

"Well he taught well, it seems! Let me know if you ever want to play again!"

The remainder of the class was spent playing doubles. Alicia was partnered up with Alexis, who showed talent for the sport, as they bested two teams; Mindy and Jasmine and Syrus and Jaden. However, Syrus and Jaden didn't play again. Deemed to need help, Jaden was put against Harrington, who was supposed to teach him about the sport. Jaden showed no interest in it whatsoever and it was never more apparent that he only cared for dueling.

Throughout the match, Harrington would occasionally look and smile at Alicia, but she noticed that he seemed captivated by Alexis. She giggled quietly to herself. What male wouldn't be? Even though she was a girl and didn't focus on such a thing because of her gender, the brunette could easily tell that Alexis was beyond pretty by the way all the boys looked at her. The blonde never seemed to care about the attention, but she must've noticed it.

She left the school late that night and headed back to her dorms. She wouldn't apologize to Zane that night even though she wanted to. After all, wouldn't it be wrong not to give him at least a day to cool off? Maybe not, but if she did it the next day, he was less likely to cry, or so she hoped.

"I don't think I'm empathic at all," she said while climbing into bed. "I still think it's an effect Zane has on other people. Maybe it's his looks… I mean, he's pretty and all but I shouldn't be focusing on that…" She smiled and decided that she needed to think of a more lighthearted thing or she'd never sleep. "Well, I will say that I'm almost positive that I'll be asking Harrington to play again sometime. He seemed nice enough…" A giggle escaped. "Oh Aaron… You'd kill me if you were here…"

* * *

Me: And there we have it! 

Zane: Oh, whoopee…

Me: Once again, there's now a 95 percent chance that this'll be a story with a slash pairing. And also, flames will be used to burn my evil computer!


	8. Chapter 8

Me: Well Zane, Alicia owes you an apology!

Zane: She certainly does! I WILL get one, right?

Me: Karaeborg, thank you for the kindly given flame to burn my computer! It's much appreciated! (Everyone please note, the flame was given kindly and is not an actual FLAME meant to damage my confidence!)

* * *

An Apology Given 

Alicia groaned as the bright sun hit her face with all its luminous might as it rained in through the window. God, why hadn't she drawn the drapes? Just a little if at all? Well, that wasn't one of her brightest moments.

She knew why she'd not thought about it and focused on that while she stood up from bed clumsily and wobbled into the bathroom to take a shower. There were no classes that day, which would have been nice if she didn't have to do what she did. Zane Truesdale… Someone whom she couldn't find more annoying... She owed him an apology.

"Not just any old apology," she said aloud as the warm shower water hit her skin. "I need to make it long, as it's what he deserves after my comments."

She hadn't heard how he was after her outburst the day before, nor had anyone really said anything about him. Form what she saw before he ran from her, he wouldn't be in the talking mood, but she'd have to go to his room anyway. Even if he didn't want her there…

"Well, I brought this upon myself. I shouldn't have brought Atticus up in that 'conversation' of ours. Man, that was low, even for me…"

She finished and dried off before slipping on her school uniform, the only clothes she had or she'd have not worn it, and brushed her hair quickly before scurrying out the door. It was sunnier than she'd expected, even when the strong rays penetrated the clear glass of her window. Birds were singing and students were frolicking all around, celebrating their day off. Okay, maybe frolicking is a bit exaggerated. In any case, they were certainly not troubled as they walked around. Great, it seemed like the entire world had no idea of the problem she faced with Zane. Actually, it probably didn't care all that much…

"Alicia? Hey, Alicia!"

It was Jaden. She hadn't looked over to know that, but his voice was unmistakable. However, she knew Syrus would probably be with him and that was her reason for avoiding to look at them. She still couldn't. Not when Zane was…well, how he was, and they didn't know.

_"Or do they?"_ she asked herself. _"Are they going to confront me about it and make a scene here in public? Hey, it'd serve me right if they did, though somehow I think Sy's too nice to do that…"_

"Hey!" the brunette Slifer said cheerily. His cheeriness faded when he saw the girl's downcast eyes. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," she said, looking up from the ground but trying to avoid Syrus' eyes, not that that was particularly hard. "I'm fine, but I've gotta be somewhere right now. I can talk to you guys later, okay?"

"We can walk with you to where you're going," Syrus said timidly. "If you don't mind the com…"

"Stupid slackers, she doesn't wanna be seen with you in public, though it surprises me how such a brat can be so nice as to not just say it plainly."

Chazz had approached with his head held high, nose pointed as far up as it would go. Had she been in a better mood, she would've giggled and made fun of how much he stood like a soldier, but she couldn't find the spirit to tease.

"We know that's not true, Chazz!" the short Slifer said quickly.

"Whatever slacker. Honestly, I'm surprised you're sticking up for her after what she did to your brother." He smirked when she turned and dropped her gaze, allowing her back to face the group. "Man, she was a cold one. He hasn't said anything all day after that. God, I heard she really went low in that event, hit a real sore spot inside."

Syrus blinked. "Is he okay?"

"Don't you listen? I didn't imply that he was, now did I? I don't know if he is or not, but all I know is that he's as silent as the grave, or how the grave is supposed to be for those who watch too many horror movies that it seeps into their brain, assuming they have one. I haven't seen him at all today though, but I didn't expect it. He's probably keeping himself cooped up in his room behind a locked door."

"Well I should go see him then! I mean, if it's really that bad!" The Slifer turned to her. "What did you say?"

"Nothing that needs to be repeated…"

"Well then I'll say if for her," the Princeton offered darkly. "Heard she was screaming at him from another student. She said some pretty harsh things, they said, but one thing really got to him. Heard she said something about him being the reason Atticus left. Man, that really hit a weak spot. Was silent after that."

Jaden was silent, but Syrus wasn't so. The boy whipped his head around, blinking in shock and speaking wildly even before he turned to face her.

"Why bring up something like that? I've known that he and Atticus have been best friends since they were kids! That statement couldn't be any more far from true!"

But when he did look, she was gone, having run from them as fast as her somewhat scrawny legs could carry her. She was blinking rapidly to hold back tears of guilt as she rushed, never looking back at them. Her ears could hear Chazz's mocking laughter as if he were standing beside her and even when he was too far back for his voice to reach her, the sound still played over and over again in hr memory, enough to drive her mad.

She didn't notice anyone behind the corner she turned until late, and then the girl could do nothing to prevent crashing into them. The other student swayed a little at the impact, but didn't fall to the ground as she had done. Without looking at their face, she muttered a quick, quiet enough to go unheard, apology. She sprung to her feet again and would've raced off if the other student hadn't caught her arm.

"Let go!" she demanded, the guilty tears finally overcoming her desire to hide them. "I didn't see you and I apologized, so let go!"

"Woah! Calm down, would you? It's just me!"

She stopped pulling and did finally look up at the other, brown eyes widening. He looked down at her with blatant confusion, his dark brown eyes were closed twice temporarily as he blinked.

"Harrington!" she exclaimed. Embarrassment flooded into her mind, but not enough to make her forget her worries. She pulled again. "Look, I'm sorry for being careless, but you need to let go."

He shook his head. "Not until you tell me what's going on." His head tilted to the side. "Are you crying?"

She inhaled sharply through her nose in order to cease any sniffling that might have taken place and wiped her eyes once with her free hand, though knowing it wouldn't do much good. He released the hand on her arm and instead placed it on her shoulder, an action to hint that he already knew and that she should just admit what the problem was.

"It's nothing to you," she said, more coldly than she had meant and wanted to, not that she wanted it to be cold at all. "It's my problem, one that I got myself into and that I have to get myself out of."

"Well if it's an apology you're gonna give, then you don't look ready for it now. Apologies should be given when calm, as you don't want to excite the other if it's possible not to. You need to relax, no matter what you did, okay?"

"You make it sound simple, like any old step by step process, but this isn't like that, at least, not for me it isn't. I can't just 'relax' so easily right now, Harrington."

He smiled gently. "Then let me help you. Since it's a day off, the courts are probably empty right now. Want to play a quick game of one on one?"

Alicia did the best she could to smile in her current state. She thought about a kind way to decline the offer, as it didn't seem right to play a game of fun when Zane was… However, if it did help…

"Okay," the brunette replied, wiping her eyes a final time. "I'm in."

Syrus knocked on the door to his brother's room in a slight panic, his worries only doubling when no answer came.

"Zane?" he called through the door. "It's Syrus, and Jaden and Alexis are here with me too." No response. "Zane? Can we come in? We heard about what happened."

Alexis took her turn when silence followed. "Zane, you know Atticus wouldn't have simply left like that, and you're crazy if you think he'd ever leave because of you. Zane, you and he were practically inseparable when we were kids, so why would he leave suddenly?" She sighed. "We know you're in there. At least answer the door."

The door swung open and revealed the male Obelisk, his eyes lifeless. As quick as the door had opened, it slammed in the trio's faces followed by only the barely heard sound of retreating footsteps. He had, in fact, answered the door, but he didn't want to speak to anyone and that was evident in his actions. The blonde sighed and shook her head.

"Come one, guys," she said in disappointment. "Let's go. He doesn't feel like talking to us, or anyone it seems, right now in his state. He'll be fine soon, I'm sure."

Reluctantly, they trooped out of the dorms and headed back over into the school. All three were silent and walked aimlessly until they heard a sound from the gym. It sounded like a tennis match, and though a duel to watch would have been preferred, especially in Jaden's case, they had nothing better to do. And so, they entered the large room, only to blink at the sight.

Alicia hadn't started the game well. In the first few rounds, she was practically thrown out of the gym, unable to concentrate on the game and 'relax' as Harrington had said to do. Though that had been the case, she then began to shake it off and soon she was playing as well as she had learned to over the years, to her opponent's relief.

The two Slifers and Obelisk were shocked to see the brunette so seemingly carefree after the event with Zane, but they wouldn't dream of being so rude as to shout it at her, and certainly not when Harrington was in the room. That wouldn't end prettily, most likely, and they didn't want to start anything with the girl, or the third year, for that matter.

Harrington won the game in the end, to no one's surprise. Alicia had done exceptionally well in the later rounds, but still couldn't do well enough to make up for the numerous points lost because of her inability to focus in the first rounds. The elder student headed over to her and patted her shoulder as praise.

"Still one of the best I've seen yet, excepting myself," he said, smiling. "Now, you can't tell me that that didn't help you feel better."

"No, it really did. Thanks Harr…"

She stopped suddenly when she noticed the audience. He turned and saw them to, and their semi-glaring eyes. He heard the girl whisper a faint 'oh no' before she lowered her gaze dramatically as the three approached them.

"You know, there's someone else I think you should be seeing…"

Alexis didn't fear being cold when she felt it was appropriate, and that was one of those times. Alicia readied herself to hear lines of various scolding simply blow past her, but nothing like that came. Another voice did instead.

"Don't start that. Don't start blaming her for anything, even if she did do something. I'll have you know that Alicia has every intention of doing the right thing and you reminding her of such a thing will only make her unable to face him."

Harrington's voice was most reassuring, and probably the thing the girl needed to hear. Alexis closed her mouth in an instant, listening to him, and Alicia looked up. It was then that she noticed how the tennis captain's eyes never left Alexis, not once. It was obvious. He liked her.

"It's true," she said. "I would've gone before but I wasn't ready, I don't think. I'm going now, and if you all have to follow me silently then I won't stop you, as you've got your rights to do so. But please, know that I know it was wrong to say what I did, okay? I don't think that's why your brother's gone, Alexis. I have my own small theories on that subject anyway after I thought about it."

The blonde's eyebrows raised. "Theories? Like what?"

"Can I tell you later?" She smiled at Harrington, even though his eyes were still on the other girl. "Right now I have somewhere I need to be and something I need to do."

She left without waiting for any kind of response whatsoever. The halls that had once seemed to go on forever seemed shorter as she darted through the halls to reach the exit of the school. Even the path to the Obelisk Boys' dorm, which actually was a slightly long path, especially one to run, seemed to be shorter in her haste to reach them.

The tall, white and blue building seemed cold and uninviting, not that she expected it to be any different. After all, it's top and no doubt favorite student seemed so disconcerted and it was the first year's fault, after all. Why should it even appear welcoming to her? There was no reason that either could think of.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," she said aloud as if addressing the building, which she was in a way. "I'm ashamed all right, so don't you worry about that."

The halls of the large dorm seemed much darker than usual, as if a shadow had fallen on the dorm. In her head, she thought about how Zane seemed to have such an effect on the place, one that she wouldn't have expected anyone to have on a non-living thing such as a dorm. But Zane was special, no doubt about that, and if he wasn't, maybe it was just all in her head.

She knocked on the door softly first, though she made sure it was loud enough for the room's occupant to hear. No response of any kind came, not even the faint sound of moving. It seemed as if the Obelisk was perfectly still inside the room, still and unmoving, even perhaps barely breathing at all.

"Zane?" she called to him in the calmest voice she could muster. "I know you're there. It's Alicia. Please, let me in."

No response answered her. She tried twice more before her patience, one that she'd spent much time preparing, began to thin. He seemed to pay no attention at all to her and it was driving her mad to stand outside his room, staring at the door and just trying nicely to get him to open it and let her in without success. Finally, she'd had enough and rapped on the door quickly and harshly.

"Zane, don't you dare make me stand out here a minute more! I feel bad about what I did and I want nothing more than to apologize to you, but I will not do it through this God forsaken door! Now you let me in this instant!"

Her remarks worked and the door quickly began to open. It was not long before the Obelisk stood in the doorway looking at her, blue eyes shining with unshed tears, ones that she wondered if they'd ever fall from the crystalline orbs.

She entered the room and allowed the door to shut. He sat down on the bed, looking at his knees while his hands were resting on the bed on either side of him. He said nothing nor looked even briefly at her and it wasn't hard to figure out that she'd have to start off.

"Zane," she began. "First off, I wouldn't have yelled at the door if I didn't have to. Understand that." Nothing came, not even a glance upwards. "Mainly, I want to apologize for what I said to you. I lost my temper and I said things I shouldn't have. I didn't mean it, Zane. And if I seemed to then, then I don't mean it now." He sighed. "But Zane, you shouldn't embrace that idea so quickly. Nothing you could ever do would drive someone away, and certainly not a friend. You have to believe that."

He looked up. "I know. Believe me when I say I wish it weren't true and I can't really blame you for losing it. That happens to everyone now and then."

"Zane…" She took a seat on the bed next to him, but not too close. Not looking over at him for she feared to see any tears from him, she continued. "I don't wanna be mean here, all right?" He nodded. "Zane, was there something between you and Atticus? You know, something more than even the best of friendships?"

A sigh passed through his lips. "I don't know…" He looked over at her, the tears that had once been gone reappearing in his blue eyes. "When you ask me that, I guess I'd have to say no. I mean, he never said anything to me related to that…"

"If so, why are you so unsure?"

"Well, because he was always so protective of me. I mean, more than a friend would be. In all of his protectiveness, I have to say that I didn't really like it." His gaze returned to being downward. "I know it's selfish of me to resent him being worried, but I'm not perfect or anything, as no one is. Still, I didn't like it. It made me feel like he thought of me as helpless and in constant need of someone to protect me. It made me feel like everyone thought of me like that, like I was a damsel in distress a lot."

"Did you tell him that?"

"No. I didn't want to anger him or anything, but I did eventually. When I went to the abandoned dorm by myself once, as I said, he was furious. After that, I tried to just listen and follow what he said. I asked him once about his work when he said he would leave for the dorms once, but he wouldn't tell me anything about it. He just told me not to worry, that it had nothing to do with me." He paused. "Still, I felt cooped up inside. I didn't like not knowing what was going on and when he did disappear, I felt so useless. As the person he hung out with, I was questioned first and the most but I couldn't tell them anything. I didn't know the things I wished I did, and it ate away at me."

She moved closer to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know it can be hard to live with things that just don't feel right. Zane, I think he was just trying to keep you safe."

"But I didn't want that!" he said, his voice rising suddenly. "I didn't want to be kept out of harms way or be told to stay where I'd be 'safe' because I wasn't! Physically yes, I was, but he'd be gone on countless occasions and sometimes I'd barely so him if at all! All I wanted was to be around him and now he's…"

The girl sucked in her breath quickly when crystal tears began to slowly drizzle down his pale face, his eyes half open. She wanted to turn from the sight but she hung onto her sanity and didn't, keeping her hand where it was instead. She couldn't let a few tears unnerve her, even ones from Zane.

"You'll see him again, Zane," she said softly. "Whether it be tomorrow or the very last day of your life, you will see him and he will be happy to see you as well. Don't worry. Everything is going to be all right. I promise."

He looked straight at her, still letting the tears flow freely down his cheeks. His cerulean eyes were deep, deeper than any wells ever created and certainly more beautiful. She managed to still not falter at the sight and blinked in curiosity.

"Those words…" he mumbled in an extremely quiet voice. "That everything was all right… Those were the words I needed to hear from him, but he never said them…"

"Yes, they're reassuring. But Zane, would it be wrong to say you needed to hear something else even more than a reassuring phrase?"

He smiled sadly, wiping his eyes once halfheartedly before nodding. "Yes, I think that statement would be quite correct indeed."

She smiled for once in a time at him and patted his thin shoulder. Standing, she knew she had to leave, as she couldn't just stay there forever. After all, though she felt as sorry as ever for him, she still couldn't stop seeing her brother. Yes, at the moment, he was nothing like Aaron, but he could be, and that was something that Alicia knew only time could help her overcome.

"Goodbye," she said kindly as she opened the door. "Feel better…"

* * *

Me: Well, kind of emotional, but still a chapter nonetheless!

Zane: True…

Me: Once again, no flames please! I told you this had a slash pairing and I really can't do anything more about it. Sorry… ;

Zane: Kata, you worry too much…

Kata: I've seen things get shot down, believe me…


	9. Chapter 9

Me: Okay! I'm back!

Fedelta: You never left…

Me: Pretend I did! Anyway, I have something to say regarding the next chapter or so, but I won't say it until after this one +Whisper+ Hey Feddie-chan, how many people do you think are gonna read the message first and the chapter second if at all?

Fedelta: You're paranoid. Just get on with it…

* * *

Worry Inducing

Alicia stretched and stood up from bed slowly, making her way to the pearly white bathroom to take her morning shower. Not even when the water hit her did she lose her collected mood, the steamy jets from the shower not being enough to wash all sleep from her eyes. She hummed a slow tune, one that she always had known, and kept humming through the shower and still when she finished and left to dress.

The tune had never really been taught to her, but she knew it by heart. Her mother had sung it to both her and her brother as a lullaby when each was no more than a year of age. She had also sung after that for the sheer enjoyment of the notes. Alicia never knew the words, but the sounds and pitches stuck in her mind as if they were cemented to her brain. After her mother died, she would always hear the slow, smooth song in the back of her mind whenever she imagined or saw a picture of her.

Only when she had dressed and was brushing her hair did she stop. Her eyes snapped open as she turned her head sharply and allowed her eyes to burn holes through the clock. It was six thirty in the morning, the same time as it usually was, but that day was different. She threw the hairbrush don on the desk and sped out the door, hoping the hand of fate would sweep her up and carry her to the school faster than her legs could, not that she was slow.

Sure, classes usually commenced at eight o' clock, but not that day. It was exam day, and for some reason, the professors had thought it best to return the exams to the students as soon as possible, preferably the day after. That had long been the belief, but never were they able to grade so many papers overnight with the regular hours. And so, they had voted for a change. To give themselves more time, students were to report to class early and leave the school at around one so the professors would have a higher chance of finishing the grades. Personally, the girl felt that they should just hand the scores back two days more if they must, but it wasn't her decision.

She ran into the classroom and sat down in her seat hurriedly, catching her breath while she prayed that she was not too late. The arrival of more students made her feel more secure, but they were all Slifers, so the amount of security she felt was small. Crowler tapped his heel as a few more lagging Slifers dragged their way into class and headed to their seats in a slump, obviously put down by the smirking and jeering Obelisks. She rolled her eyes when she noticed that some of the Obelisks hadn't come in so early themselves.

"Well," the blonde, purple-lipped man began impatiently. "Now that everyone who even has a few scraps of desire to at least make some effort, considerable or not, in my class is here, let us begin! Now, Obelisks and Ras can turn to their papers and tune out because it is only the Slifers that I speak to. I know I shouldn't have to tell fifteen-year-old boys how to behave, but I can't say you know. So, do not speak during this exam and no matter how hopeless it is for you to pass, do not zone out, doodle, and DO NOT SLEEP. Mr. Yuki!"

No answer came. Alicia looked up from her test to see that neither he nor his two Slifer friends, Syrus and Chumley, were there. She shook her head upon realizing the professor's extreme annoyance and secretly wished she could tell Jaden that Crowler no longer had a last nerve, having lost it the first or second day, so the boy should at least try to get a little closer to staying off his complete bad side. Not that Jaden would listen…

"Well class, it seems we have some students who don't feel like showing up today for this most important exam. Just remember now, you'll always be one step ahead of them, as much of complement that is by itself…"

It was about three-fourths through the class when Jaden and his friends made their appearance. Though the brown-haired Slifer was as chipper and perky as usual and didn't really seem to care about his tardiness, the other two were not so. Syrus' head was down, about as far so as it could possibly go. He was probably trying to show as much respect as possible after walking into such an embarrassing situation, but she hoped that he didn't plan for his tries to amount to anything.

The doctor raised his eyebrows from his desk to signal them to sit and begin even though they couldn't possibly pass the test in the short amount of time they had. Even though she had both paid attention in class and studied, Alicia found the test to be quite hard indeed. It was almost like an alchemy exam and many of the questions referred to the reviewed material in such a roundabout way that it was nearly impossible to figure some out without much thinking time, something that hadn't really been present beforehand and certainly wasn't available to the late-coming trio.

No bells rang that day and so the class was informed of the period's end. Each brought their test to Dr. Crowler under instruction, even the three Slifers. Crowler's purple lips formed a distinct frown as Syrus began talking meekly and quickly.

"Please sir, can I finish some in detention? I didn't finish a fourth of it yet!"

"If it means so much to you, come on time next time!" he snapped coldly. He raised his eyes to look at the door, and the students coming through it. "Now scurry out! As you can hopefully see, I have a class here and now! As do you, but it isn't my concern if you head there or not. Off with you now!"

The short boy made no further protest. He shuffled out of the room as quietly as he could, his face flushed with shame and embarrassment. Jaden joined him outside along with Chumley and patted him on the back reassuringly.

"Come on, Sy. Look, I'm really sorry about forgetting about this new schedule, but let's try to overcome it. Let's go. Banner's class is next and if we don't finish even when on time, maybe he'll be more forgiving than Crowler."

The alchemy exam was, to everyone's surprise except Banner's and perhaps Pharaoh's, very easy. At least, it SEEMED easy compared to the previous test. Unlike the demonic exam from the darkest pit in Hell that Crowler had somehow summoned from the depths, Banner had prepared a straightforward exam that practically mirrored the review material for the class and actually made sense.

The kind teacher in question sat at his desk with his large cat in his arms, his usual smiling look upon his face. He apparently knew of his students' reaction to his exam and was happy with the fact that it was a relief, not that their feelings would have been hard to figure after a great sigh of relief had gone throughout the room. Alicia had been one of those to sigh but she wasn't nearly as loud as some of the other students. One particular Slifer seemed to fuel the entire sound as it began and ended, being so loud that someone could have mistook it for an odd shout of some sort.

The female brunette approached the still semi-distraught Slifer after the exam was over, hoping that she would be able to say something that would at least help a little. Even with that thought in mind, her idea banks were as blank as slates when it came to having any idea at all about WHAT to say. She knew how she hoped for him to feel as a result, but knew nothing about what the cause would be.

"Don't worry, Syrus," she said, trying to be sound as kind and supportive and not nervous or unsure as possible. "There's always next exam. Everyone needs to get knocked down once in a while and besides, the number of times you're knocked down doesn't matter."

"It doesn't? But everyone always makes fun when I fail."

"It doesn't matter because what truly matters is that you keep getting up. You know the saying; a man falls six times but gets up seven? Well it's true. The only time you truly fail is when you stop trying."

Though her statement had really been just a few words thrown together along with lines from various books or movies, the effect she was going for was accomplished. His eyes seemed a little bit brighter while he held his head high for perhaps the first real time in too long a time. He seemed more confident, and even though it was probably just a temporary effect, she was glad that it had happened at all.

"Thanks Alicia," he said. "From now on, I'm gonna try for what I want!"

She smiled at his sudden spark and turned her eyes a little away from his when she thought she saw a familiar sight walking towards them. She was right and called to them as they neared.

"Hey! Zane! Come talk with us, or at least Sy!"

His reaction stunned her. He brushed past her without any motion that he even heard the words leave her mouth. She hadn't seen him much that week, but they hadn't had any real fights ever since she apologized to him days before, so her mind could come up with no reason at all for his actions. Syrus slumped again, feeling that his brother still looked down on him, and at first she was angry. Then, worry came to her and she shook her head, thinking.

_"He didn't seem so good. I wonder if something's up…"_

The day just seemed to roll by as she thought about nothing else but the third year's actions, or lack of them, in the hall. Her focus of thoughts was perfectly fine, for none of the other exams were nearly as hard as Crowler's and some of them would even pale in comparison to Banner's, which seemed simple to her. For once, she felt proud of herself and she too held her head a little higher, knowing that she, the girl who was completely in the dark about alchemy, had thought it simple. Lost in thought, she couldn't help but jump a little when someone caught up to her and spoke suddenly.

"Hey there! Fancy a match?"

She spun to face the owner of the still upbeat voice and smiled. "Oh, Harrington! I didn't see you."

"Yeah, I noticed when you didn't turn around the first three hundred times I called," he joked. "I can tell something's on your mind. What say you tell me?"

"What say I tell you on the other side of a net from you?"

He nodded with a chuckle and led onward into the gym to the courts. Alicia was tremendously glad when she had first heard the word tennis in the school, and the fact that the racquets were provided was great by itself. She had a vague memory of when Aaron had asked for one and it took a decent amount out of his allowance, though she was young and could perhaps not remember correctly.

"So," her opponent began, tossing the ball up and hitting it to her, lightly to start off. "What's on your mind?"

"It's Zane actually," she replied, hitting it back and adding more force to the ball. "He didn't seem well when I saw him earlier today and really didn't seem to notice much of what was going on around him. Hey, you're in his year, right? Have you noticed anything?"

"Yeah actually. I mean, I don't watch him or anything, but I think anyone could tell he's not himself for some unspoken reason. Hey, You got to apologize, right?"

"Yeah, but since then he's been down. Maybe he's sick or something."

"I don't know. He's been sick here before occasionally, but was still better off then than he seems now. He's so distant in class and his eyes are dreamy, like he's staring into an endless void. I don't know what's going on. I mean, at first I thought it might've been a family tragedy, but Syrus, the more emotional by far, hasn't changed a bit!"

She just nodded, but secretly she felt that she knew the problem. Having Atticus brought up so quickly had probably done something to him and had him worried sick because the other student wasn't back yet. She understood his worries, but why such things had a physical effect on the cerulean-haired teen was still a mystery to her. There was something special about him, or so she felt. Something that was just unexplainable, or maybe just by her if others noticed it.

After the match the two headed outside and sat down on one of the benches. It was a lovely day. The breeze wasn't the least bit cold, but in fact warm while the sun shone bright overhead. Though they sometimes only sang in the morning, the birds seemed eager to play up the fair weather with high, chirping songs that floated around the school. She sighed.

"It's nice…"

Yes, she would have said more, but her attention was drawn to another sight. Judging by the student's white jacket, thin frame, and deep blue hair, it was easy for the pair to identify him as Zane. He was walking along the path that would lead into the school, if it could even be called walking. He shifted from side to side frequently and from the look of him, even from far away, the chance of him passing out seemed almost one hundred percent.

"I don't like it…"

As soon as she stood, her worries had come true and Zane raised a hand to his head once as if he were having a dizzy spell before he collapsed on the ground. She gasped and ran to him, knowing that Harrington was only feet behind her, and rushed to him. He fell again after a poor attempt to stand and did not try again. His eyes were closing.

"Zane!" she exclaimed. She dropped to her knees and without thinking, pulled him to her and rested his head against her shoulder. "My God! Wake up!" She shook him. "Zane! Come on, please wake up!"

No response came from the teen in her arms. Worry fully taking over her, she turned her gaze to Harrington. "Go get the nurse quickly!"

He nodded only once before turning and dashing into the school as if the devil himself was at his heels. She tried twice more to revive the Obelisk, the second time proving useful.

"Alicia… What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you, you idiot!" she snapped, her emotions controlling both her words and tone. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm just…tired…"

He was out again before she could say a single word more. Luckily, Harrington was returning to the spot with Fonda Fontaine running after him as fast as she could in her heels. Oddly enough, the chancellor was with them and his running was no better than hers was, even though he obviously wore regular shoes.

"What's going on here?" Fonda asked. "Harrington came and told us. My goodness, what's happened to him?"

"I don't know, Miss Fontaine," Alicia told her, trying to keep as under control as she could in her worried state. "Harrington and I were sitting down after a tennis match and we saw him. He wasn't walking right so I thought there was something wrong. That proved to be correct when he just dropped to the ground in front of us."

"But it wasn't just now," Harrington put in. "He hasn't been acting normally for the whole week now. Hasn't said a word to anyone, though. I don't know if there's a real reason, but if there is, he seems to really want it to stay unknown."

"Well thank you for calling. We'll bring him to the infirmary today and see if we can't find what's going on with him, or at least find some trace of evidence. I think you both should go back to your rooms and relax before you have a nice, long rest before tomorrow. I can't promise that he'll be seeing you then, but let's hope he'll be all right."

Alicia rose to her feet with speed, still holding onto the student and letting him lean on her for support while unconscious. "Oh please, Miss Fontaine," she begged. "Can't we help you bring him to the infirmary. I mean, if you don't want to, Harrington, but I…"

"Nah, I do."

The chancellor smiled. "Well then, I guess it can do no harm. Just make sure not to stay too long and rest well tonight. The event can be trying, I know."

The two nodded respectfully before the third year helped Alicia with Zane by putting one of the unconscious teen's arms over his shoulders and holing on as she did the same. Carefully, they headed inside, each mentally praying that nothing too serious had just occurred.

* * *

Me: Well, he's outta there! 

Fedelta: Not for good, Kata!

Me: No, but for now, YES.

Zane: Why is it always me? Tell me why!!!!

Me: Oh, and y'all! I promised info! Well, there's gonna be a duel in the next chapter or two (Probably the second…) and it's actually gonna be written out. Yes, I've been lazy with the others…


	10. Chapter 10

Me: Here we go again!

Zane: I'm unconscious? Oh joy…

Me: Yeah, yeah… Oh, and y'all! If Alicia's a Mary-sue, I can't help it! It's just one of my flaws that I can't create a non-sue for an OC. I'm sorry, but I can't…

Zane: Get on with it! I wanna wake up!

* * *

Self-inflicted

Zane's unconscious state changed none as he was rushed to the infirmary and placed on a bed. That itself worried the two adults and two students greatly and Fonda immediately headed off to find a thermometer. It was used the instant she returned, its reading providing no explanation at all to Zane's passing out.

"Alicia, Harrington," she said in a certain tone that clued them in on what she was to say. "I feel that you should return to your dorm rooms now. You may visit him tomorrow if all is well enough and please inform Syrus."

They nodded and left the instant she was done. Yes, neither wanted to leave with the Obelisk in such a state, but they knew it would be both useless and unwise to argue with the woman at the time, not to mention the chancellor as well. When things happened, Fonda was known to worry much and when she was worried, she could be snappier than she probably meant to be. No student ever wanted to see that side of her, not after the first group of three girls who had about four years ago. The story had been passed down through the school and though many if not most believed it to be untrue and false, which it could have been, no one dared to experiment.

"I can tell you're worried," Harrington said, keeping his eyes on the path ahead of them to the dorms. "It's a good reason to be, but we have to believe this is a passing thing. He wasn't feverish, so maybe it's not all that serious."

"Whether he's feverish or not doesn't have much to do with the severity of what's going on in my view of things," she answered monotonously. "Whatever did happen, it's made him pass out in public and scare me silly. I just know this is something in his head…"

"It could be. I don't know Zane well enough to tell, but you seem to know what you're talking about. I'll take your word for what it is then, since I can certainly offer no better explanation."

The two said nothing for a time and instead concentrated on walking, or appeared to anyway. In truth, both were trying to figure out what had really happened back at the school and so far, neither one was making much progress. Harrington's ideas about the problem were non-existent because of lack of basic knowledge about Zane, but Alicia's weren't all that much different even with what she had talked to the third year about before. The back of her mind felt that it had to do with Atticus still being gone, but she didn't know that loneliness or an emotion like that could have such a strong physical effect on someone. After all, she had never passed out when her mother died, unless you count…

She shook her head and blocked out the thought that she had sworn to herself years ago never to think about. Sighing, she refocused her thoughts on Zane and the problem at hand. No physical effect should ever really take place, so what had happened? Then again, Zane seemed different to her, like how she couldn't stand to see his tears. Maybe there was something about him that made his emotions have more effect on him and those around him. Or maybe it was just her.

"Harrington," she said, speaking up. "I have to ask you a question. Keep in mind that it'll sound weird."

"I'll do that. Fire away."

"It's about Zane. Uh… Have you ever seen him cry before?"

The elder student stopped and turned to her, his eyes very confused. "In a way, yes, but only once in the time he's been here. Why do you ask?"

"When it happens, does it make you feel anything? Like, something really bad?"

"It's amazing, but yes, it does. I saw him cry a while ago, actually. I don't really know for sure what it was about, but it was after his friend Atticus disappeared, so I figured that was it. He ran back to his room so I didn't see him long, but it brought back a memory of when my great grandmother died. She had lived with our family since before I was born so she was always there and very close to each of us. Though she was very old when I was born, she hung on until I was in sixth grade, but by then she was well over ninety, and our family doesn't usually live past ninety or ninety-one. She could've been the longest lived."

"Remembering something tragic from the past is what he did to me as well. It revived the memory of when my mother passed away in the hospital."

His eyes were heavily sympathetic. "Your mother? I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it. But anyway, there's something about him that makes it happen. I don't think he means it, but it's part of him. When I saw him, I wanted to run away. I didn't though because I couldn't leave him in his room like that when I had been the one to come there by my own will. It wouldn't have been right to leave."

The male Obelisk sighed. "All I know about him is that he doesn't socialize very well and that he can give people he doesn't know the cold shoulder. For him to open up to you… He must really like you, Alicia. Either that or he just trusts you."

"I would say more the second. He can't like me all that much, not since our very first meeting was a sour one. I see someone in him that I'd rather not see and though I'm trying, I can't get over it. I know I'm unreasonable, but hey, everyone has flaws."

The tennis captain didn't reply and she took that as a hint to not continue the conversation. With a sigh, she closed her mouth permanently for the night and walked next to him, listening to the silence. It was not peaceful as silence usually was for her. Instead she felt tension in the air and so she slackened her pace, allowing him to pass far ahead of her. He neither stopped nor looked back, so she figured he was fine with her leaving and walked on slowly to her own dorm.

Once inside her room, she shut the door and headed to the bathroom with her nightgown under her arm to change and brush her teeth. Upon opening the medicine cabinet on the wall, she cursed lightly under her breath to find that there was no toothpaste left.

"Damn. I've gotta replace that, but I thought it'd be able to hold on just a bit longer. Oh well…" She put her nightgown on the counter and headed out of her room to the door across the hall. "I guess I'll ask Alexis if I can borrow some."

She knocked lightly on the door after hearing the other girl humming to herself in the main room. Alexis was at the door in moments and smiled.

"Yes?"

"Hi. Sorry to bother you, but could I borrow some toothpaste? I'm fresh out. I'll bring it right back."

"Oh, no problem!" She headed into the bathroom and returned with a small container of mint flavored toothpaste. "My folks gave me too much anyway. Here, you can keep this."

"Thanks Lex," she said gratefully. "Actually, I think I need to tell you something. It's Zane."

"Zane? Please come in."

She followed her inside and sat down on the couch designated and waited until Alexis sat down after the door closed. She could tell the girl was worried already about the news to come, and the information certainly wouldn't help that.

"Well, he's unconscious in the infirmary now," the brunette began, staring down at her hands in her lap.

"He is? What happened?"

"We don't know. Harrington and I were outside when he collapsed in front of us. He's been out cold ever since. We can't tell the problem because he's not feverish and personally, I think it's in his head."

"In his head? What are you talking about?"

"I think it's related to the fact that your brother is gone. Call me crazy, but I think that's why he's distant and also why he's acting this way. After all, they're childhood friends." She purposely left out how Zane might truly feel about the girl's brother.

"Well yeah, but who told you that?"

"Zane did the day I apologized to him in his room."

Alexis blinked, appearing stunned. "He talks so freely to you, it seems. I think he likes you."

Alicia gave her a disbelieving stare and the other girl got the hint that her analysis was probably incorrect. She couldn't think of what else to say in relation to that, so she started an almost new topic.

"Sorry about being snappy that day. I mean, I've known Zane a while and I guess I let my emotions control me for a minute there, even though that's kinda what I was mad at you for. I guess that makes me a little hypocritical?"

The shorter girl smiled and shook her head, standing from the couch. "No, being human doesn't make a person a hypocrite."

She had left after that with a goodnight to Alexis and headed back into her own room. This time she successfully brushed her teeth and changed for bed before crawling into bed and laying her head down on the pillows, hoping for a more pleasant tomorrow.

The next day began when the sun woke her by shining in her face. Damn, she had forgotten the drapes AGAIN. She mentally considered taping a note to her door that read, "WARNING: DEADLY SUN MEANS CLOSE DRAPES!" Of course, she didn't think she would do such a thing in reality and would just try to remember manually.

She dressed quickly and headed for class, remembering at the last moment before the bell rang that the exam scores would be given out that day. She sat in her seat unable to stop moving as Dr. Crowler entered the room through the back door. She had reason to hurry. The blonde professor's exam had been extremely hard and she prayed that she didn't get in the eighties or below. True, girls wouldn't be demoted, but she didn't want her grades to drop too low or else what self-confidence she had gathered over the years would drop with them.

"Well class," Crowler said, a smirk on his face. "Slifers did more terribly than usual and Ras, your grades were a little under what they have been, but I am pleased with my Obelisks."

He headed to his desk and hit a button on the computer screen, displaying all grades on the much larger screen on the wall. Alicia scanned the list of grades searching for hers until she finally found it. It read, "Alicia Rayonetto: 90." She couldn't help but sigh in relief as she saw that she had in fact remained in the nineties. One look at the scores of Syrus, Jaden, and Chumley told her that they would need to really study up. Alexis had scored very high, being one of the top scores in the class.

"As I said, my Obelisks have done outstandingly well! Now you Slifer slackers need some study time! I should be able to accomplish such a thing in detention!"

A groan was heard from the mob of red-jacketed students. Crowler barked sharply an order to be silent and they listened after a few grumbles of annoyance. The rest of the class went as normal as it usually did, but it still seemed to take the bell an eternity to ring. Finally the familiar sound was heard and students, mainly Slifers, literally ran out the door, eager to spend as much time away from Crowler as they could before they were placed in hours of detention in his room after school.

Over the course of the day, Alicia was happy with her exam scores. Crowler's score had been the lowest of them all, as expected, not that the others were too far from it. The day had pretty much ended and the Slifers would be obligated to return to Crowler's room, but Alicia hurried over to Syrus.

"Alicia!" he said in a worried tone. "Is it true? Alexis told me that Zane was…"

"It's true, Sy," she replied gently. "Why don't you go see him?"

"Crowler will never let me, not even to see Zane!" He stomped his foot on the ground and sighed. "Alicia, I know it might be too much to ask, but will you go?"

She smiled. "Of course I will."

She headed off quickly as the boy went to detention. There was a burning flame inside her, angry that Crowler would be so cold as to keep Syrus away from Zane when the Obelisk was in such a state, but the professor had never been known for kindness. She knew Syrus hadn't asked the man and a part of her said that the Slifer would have been allowed to go since Zane was Crowler's favorite by far.

The infirmary never did seem welcoming to her because of what it was but she headed in anyway. Spying Zane still lying in the same bed as before, she headed over and sat down in the chair next to the bed. Fonda had apparently stepped out for the moment because she was obviously not in the room.

"Zane…"

The teen's eyes were still closed and he was very still, the only movement being the slight rise and fall of his chest. His breathing was calm and to her he appeared to be in a deep sleep rather than unconscious. He was no paler than usual, a good sign indeed. She listened to his light, quiet breathing for a few moments, relaxing before she gasped upon hearing a groan.

His eyes closed more tightly for a split second before they slid open, their beautiful blue color revealed once again after being hidden for a day. At first unfocused, his eyes adjusted to being open again and he looked at her, registering who exactly it was.

"Alicia? Where am I?"

"You're in the infirmary," the girl answered kindly, reaching a hand to him. "You passed out cold yesterday for unknown reasons and we brought you here."

He took her offered hand timidly and sighed. "I know why and you probably do too. After you and I talked some days ago, I started thinking about Atticus again. I stayed up all night every night reading books, looking on the computer and in places where I could find records, doing anything I could that might give me an answer to why Atticus had to go to the dorm."

She wasn't paying much attention for her eyes focused on something on his wrist that was barely seen under his jacket. "Zane, what's that on your wrist?"

He sighed. "Nothing."

As he expected her to do, she pulled up his sleeve to reveal the marks better and looked at them sadly. They weren't hard to identify as cut marks, thin and cut across the wrist. She squeezed his hand and shook her head.

"Why did you do it?"

Zane shrugged, looking away. "I don't know. I couldn't find any reason for Atticus' leaving to go to the dorms and I guess I just though it could've really been me. I wasn't suicidal or anything, but I just don't know…"

"Zane, look at me." He did so. She held her other arm up and turned her wrist so he looked at the inside of it. He blinked when he spotted a collection of about four long, thin scars trailing up from her wrist. "It was when I was twelve, right after my mother died. I didn't mean to cut as deep as I did or hit the vein that I did, but it happened anyway. And why? Because I was young, and emotional, and stupid, that's why. Aaron found me and rushed me to the hospital, the last kind act he's ever done since then. Things can happen by accident, so don't do it. As I had to learn those days in the all white room with doctors just as common as flies, it wasn't your fault what happened. Don't treat it as if it were."

"What is it then?" he asked, small tears pooling in his eyes. "He didn't even say goodbye before he left. What can I think?"

Alicia smiled sadly and pulled him into a hug, patting him on the back lightly. "That it wasn't your fault. Remember that if you remember anything, all right? Don't worry about this, Zane."

His breathing changed back to calm and she looked down to see that he was asleep once again. The girl slipped away from him the best she could without waking him and tiptoed out the infirmary door into the hall. Once outside, she walked without hurry to go back to the dorms to have supper and was surprised to hear a voice call her from behind when she exited the school.

"I figured you'd go see him. How is he?"

"He woke up for a little," the brunette answered with a smiled as she let the male Obelisk catch up to her. It was then that she noted his semi-dulled tone of voice. "Harrington? Is something wrong?"

"No. Actually, I'm relieved to hear it's nothing bad."

"I don't know. He's still shaken up and I think it might take at least another day to get him to be more normal. I hope he'll be all right and over this. He doesn't really deserve it, despite anything I might have said in the past."

Harrington's dull voice never changed. "From how you talk, it sounds like on the inside, you love him."

"I mean…" Her voice cut off sharply when she absorbed the true meaning of what he had just said. She just gaped in response while he shrugged and walked off, not turning once to look back at her.

"Night, Alicia."

He was gone in a minute's time, leaving her to walk by herself, not that she hated being alone. She was silent, even in her mind, as she walked to her room and closed the door. She prepared for bed and lay back, chuckling nervously out loud.

"That's ridiculous. I'm not in love with Zane!" She thought back to when she had held his hand. When she had held him in an embrace. The newly made memories caused her to let out a sigh. "Or am I?"

* * *

Me: OOH. A question with doubts!

Zane: Hmm… At least I'm awake again.

Me: Technically you're still asleep…

Zane: Hey! You're ruining my moment here!


	11. Chapter 11

Me: Zane, you'll wake up for good in this chapter, okay?

Zane: Finally!

Me: And y'all! This is also the chapter containing the first written duel of the story!

Fedelta: Oh how exciting…

* * *

Princess of Duel Academy

For once, Alicia had remembered to close the curtains in her room. She awoke to only a few stray beams of pale light filtering in through the few spaces between and around the drapes. Glad she had remembered, she swung both legs over the side of the bed and headed to the closet to retrieve her uniform.

It was another day that the students had off. Sort of. After a major exam day, there were no classes for students who had passed each exam with an 85 or higher the day after the scores were given. However, those who failed would be required to report to each class that they failed in for a long lesson that would go over the subjects, or rather, be screamed to the students if they were unlucky enough to fail Crowler's test, not that failing that thing would be hard.

She showered and dressed as quickly as she could, wishing to get going as soon as possible. Because she knew her Slifer friends wouldn't be coming out of the school until late, she had to hurry to see them before they were pulled down into the depths of the failure lecture, as Crowler called it. It wasn't difficult to get out the door and she did so, walking quickly through the halls.

When she got outside, she stopped walking and instead ran towards the school. As impossible as it may seem, only when she was around halfway there did she notice the weather. It had been sprinkling lightly when she first exited the Obelisk dorms and now the amount of rain had increased and was still going up.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, increasing her pace and sprinting towards the school. "Damn it, why didn't I bring a coat?"

The second she stepped inside the school was when the rain had reached its full intensity. She sighed a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a surprised squeak when a strong gust of wind blew in through the door, blowing her skirt up a little. She dropped her hands to hold it down and walked quickly farther into the school, putting some good paces between her and the infernal breeze.

"Damn, I'm soaked. Maybe running through the school after Jaden and Syrus will help me dry off!"

She ran again, heading through the hallways and going in the general direction that would lead to Crowler's room. Alicia figured that'd be a decent place to wait for Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley because that was the first class, but she'd have to leave if they were running late. After all, she couldn't wait forever.

Luckily for her, it wasn't long before three familiar figures came into view. None of them looked happy to be going to the class, but the shortest looked positively miserable. He dragged his feet on the Academy's floor and kept his head down to the point where she wondered how he could possibly know where he was going. His cyan hair fell in front of his face; not that it did anything to hide his feelings.

"Syrus?" she asked. "You okay?"

He looked up at her, unshed tears shining in his eyes. "I guess. Alicia, I got an 80 on Crowler's test, so that much I can understand, but in alchemy I got an 84, one point below passing!" He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I want to see my brother, Alicia! He's still in the infirmary and I can't see him because I failed by one point! One measly point!"

"It's unfair, I know," she said, sympathizing. "All I can do to reassure you a little is tell you that it's nothing serious. It was just lack of sleep. I'm going to see him today and I'll tell him how you wished you could come."

"Lack of sleep? Why would someone go for days without sleeping?"

"Yeah!" Jaden put it. "And I thought Zane was the one beyond us in wits! He should know better than to stay up all night so many times, especially without having any caffeine or sugar to keep him going!"

"Jaden, not everyone enjoys sugar highs." She sighed. "It's Atticus. He's been staying up all night reading records, books, everything. He's trying to find out a reason for why Atticus disappeared and all the research finally got to him. He's much better now after sleeping for so long, though. He'll be just fine, I promise."

"That's a rel…"

"Slifer slackers!" Crowler snapped from inside the room. "As terrifying as I know it is, you must be in the room to listen to the lecture! Perhaps next time you would consider studying up before such an exam!"

"But sir," one Slifer in the room said timidly. "We all did, but those questions barely referred to the review guides you gave us at all…"

"Silence!" he roared. "Another comment like that and I shall have you all tomorrow when the entire rest of the school has no class! And Mr. Yuki, for the last time, get in this room now! That goes for your two slacker friends as well! Come now, I don't have all day, but I could if one of you speaks again!"

Alicia whispered a quiet good luck to her friends and darted away from the door before she was noticed, her annoyance growing the more she thought about Crowler's rotten and unjust attitude towards the students. In her view, the professor should be trying to raise the students' confidence to help them do better, not tear them down and make them think they're not good enough to do it. Why would they be able to if that was their belief? For a long time she had wondered how the cold doctor ever got his job at the academy. Surely the chancellor can't not notice his attitude?

The infirmary seemed brighter when she walked in, probably because one glance towards Zane's bed made her feel even more relieved. He was sitting up and reading a thick book; one that she hoped had nothing to do with Atticus, missing students, or the abandoned dorm. It wasn't that she disliked his determination to find Atticus. She admired that, actually, but it had such an ill affect on him. She would like to see him smiled more.

"Hey Zane," she greeted pleasantly, taking a seat in the chair beside him. "Whatcha reading?"

"The history of Duel Monsters, written by Maxamillion Pegasus himself," he replied, setting the heavy volume of at least five hundred pages down on his lap. She saw that he was halfway through the book.

"How long have you been reading it?"

"Oh, just since this morning. I woke up a little early because I didn't wake up at all after falling asleep when you were here yesterday, Alicia, and I was bored. Because I wasn't tired at all, I saw the book on the shelf and started reading it."

She blinked. "That much already? How is it?"

"Long, has interesting facts in it, but altogether on the boring side. And no, that does not mean I like it even if I seem a little boring sometimes."

She smiled warmly. "Never crossed my mind. Hey, Syrus would be here but his grades put him in classes for the day. He really wanted to come though."

"I know. I figured that…"

"So, when do you get out of here?"

"I don't know." He sighed. "Fonda said she'd e back around noon, so I guess she might set me loose then. I hope so, because I feel fine now and I don't find staying in this bed very amusing."

"You want me to go to the library and get you a different book? Maybe that'd help pass the time for you."

"Oh God, please do. If I weren't so awake this thing would put me to sleep. Thanks."

She nodded to him and left, heading for the library. There were no words to describe how happy she was that Zane was all right and when she was with him, a part of her wanted to hug him then and there. Harrington's comment about her feelings towards the Obelisk crept back into her mind and caused a blush to appear on her cheeks. She shook her head and was about to continue on her way when she felt a presence behind her.

Alicia whipped her head around, coming face to face with another girl. She was taller with long, straight red hair and ice-blue eyes. Her lips wee painted a rosy red and molded into an angry frown, as angry as her glaring eyes were. There was a gold choker around her neck with a pendant in the center inscribed with some symbol, as well as many bracelets on her wrists and one golden chain as an anklet around her left ankle.

"Can I help you?" the brunette asked, annoyed by the other girl's angry demeanor.

"I heard you talking about Atticus Rhodes earlier," she said, her voice accented to sound noble. "Let me just tell you that he did leave something before he left; a note. A note on someone's door."

"Whose door?"

"I didn't pay attention to whose door it was," she said coldly. "But I took that note myself. Whoever's door that was, it wasn't mine. Atticus must've made a mistake in my room number."

"You stole it?" Alicia said in disbelief. "And why? Because he left a note for someone that wasn't you? That's crossing the line big time!"

"I already told you it was for me."

"Whose name was on it?"

She snorted. "Only his. It wasn't addressed to anyone. Why should it be if he was going to leave it on the door? I'd know it was mine when I found it, and I'm lucky I did or else that other girl would have a completely wrong idea in her head."

"I'll duel you for it."

The girl's eyebrows raised. "Oh really? A first year nobody taking on me? How cute. All right, dearie, I'll duel you. Meet by the lighthouse ASAP."

After the red-head left, Alicia mentally scolded herself numerous times. She hadn't blown the proctor away on the dueling portion of the entrance exams, and that had really been her last recent duel. Now, she was to face a girl who was without a doubt older and wouldn't hold back in the least? This was truly not her brightest idea yet.

"But if I win I get the note," she reminded herself. "And I'm pretty sure it belongs to Zane."

She met her obnoxious opponent at the lighthouse as planned, sliding her deck into the duel disk on her arm and watching the device activate, ready to begin. Her opponent was already prepared and ready to go, grinning darkly.

"Hey kid, just so you know, I'm no nobody. You see this?" She pointed to the symbol on her necklace. "This is my family's crest. See, I come from a small kingdom but from a high family and a long line of duelists. I didn't need to come to this school, but it looks nice when you get a job as a professional, so I did. But with that damn girl Alexis as 'Queen' of Obelisk, I've assumed my roll as well. The name's Allison, Princess Allison, to be exact, and you're in for it! Get ready to crumble!"

**DUEL!**

"Courtesy rules, losers go first!"

"That'd mean you'd go, but I'll accept the offer," Alicia said bitterly, drawing her sixth card. "I summon The Agent of Wisdom – Mercury in defense mode!" The green-skinned creature appeared, wrapping its sea green wings around itself to act as a defense. "Next, I play one two cards face down and end my turn."

"Is that all? Fine, then I'll set one monster and also play two cards face down. Now go."

"With pleasure. Before anything, I activate one of my traps; the card known as Solemn Wishes! Now, I gain 500 life points each time I draw, such as now! Next, I'll play Graceful Charity to not only gain 500 more life points, but to draw three more cards, so long as I discard two." She smiled. "I summon The Agent of Creation – Venus to the field in attack mode!"

The female agent appeared in a flurry of breezes and feathers, her hands crossed over her chest and her long, golden hair fanning out behind her. Her wings were outstretched proudly as her eyes stared ahead, but weren't focused on anything in particular. Allison chuckled.

"You think those cards can beat me? You think they can even scratch my strategies? I think not and you should as well. I have been trained well in my home and you have not."

"But you are not undefeated here, are you? I can tell a student here has won against you in a duel before. Who was it?"

The princess glared angrily and stomped a heeled boot down on the dock. It was obviously not a favored memory and she apparently hated showing weakness of any kind. Finally her icy eyes looked back up, fire burning within them.

"Who was it?" she asked, her tone high-pitched in her fury. "The only student to ever defeat me was that slut, Zane. How could I have let such a person defeat me? And in front of a crowd? He made me a laughing stock that day, and I will never rest until that damn succubus burns in Hell where he belongs."

Brown eyes focused on the angry girl with such hate in them that if looks could kill, Allison would be dead, as would any future reincarnation. Alicia's tone was venomous and low, but sharp and demanded undivided attention.

"Don't you ever say that about him. Venus, attack her face down monster!"

The angel's attack tore through the defending card, but the monster underneath didn't shatter instantly. A girl with long, blonde hair in a red robe was revealed, gleaming crystals on her hat and on her knuckles. She smiled devilishly before shattering, the shards blowing in a fierce wind towards Alicia.

"Nice, kid. When Princess of Tsurugi is flipped face up, like she just was when your agent attacked, you lose 500 life points for each magic and trap card on your side of the field."

Alicia groaned as the shards hit and her life points returned to 4000. She steadied herself and glared. "I end my turn."

"All you can do, eh? Watch and learn, girl." Allison drew a card and smirked. "I summon White Magician Pikeru in attack mode!" A small, pink-haired girl in a fluffy white robe appeared holding a staff. "But now I activate my trap, A Rival Appears! Since a level four monster is on the field, I can summon one from my hand. So now, meet Ebon Magician Curran!"

The black-clothed magician looked a lot like Pikeru, except she bore a whip instead of a staff. She held the pink whip in one hand, her eyes dark, focusing on Alicia's cards. Though she looked more menacing than Pikeru, both monsters had only 1200 attack points, not enough to match Venus' 1600. There was something else going on.

"You think there's something else? Well, you're right. I activate Trial of the Princess and equip it to Pikeru! Now, her attack points become 2000! Pikeru, attack Venus!"

The brunette swayed as Venus shattered and her life points hit 3600. Allison announced her turn's end and she glared at the girl, drawing, and raising her life points to 4100.

"I'm still standing," she countered. "I sacrifice Mercury to summon The Agent of Judgment – Saturn!" The blue angel descended from the skies, its long robe flowing around it while its eyes were also blind. "Saturn, attack Curran!"

The black magician shattered like glass, disappearing from the field but Allison's life points didn't change at all. The elder girl smirked and pointed to her now-activated facedown.

"It's called Pikeru's Circle of Enchantment and it reduces all battle damage for one turn to zero. Nice shot though, but it's my turn now." She smirked and drew a card. "I play Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two more cards from my deck, but not before I gain 300 life points thanks to Pikeru's effect. Next, I'll play Black Pendant to power up my magician, bringing her attack points up to five hundred. I think you can guess what happens now."

She could, but said nothing as Saturn was destroyed and her life points hit 4000. Instead, she blinked in surprise when Pikeru began to vanish and her life points hit 3500 when Black Pendant was destroyed as well. Allison found her confusion amusing.

"Bewildered? Baffled? It's another effect of Trial of the Princess. When the equipped monster destroys a level 5 or higher monster, I can summon the princess form of the equipped monster, so please, let's give Princess Pikeru a royal welcome to the duel!"

There was no doubt that the newly summoned monster was Pikeru, but she did look very different from her magician form. Her dress had remained white but was longer and looked as if she wore another shirk under it to make it stick out farther. She wore a hat atop her head and had a small creature behind her, looking like a butler.

Allison's turn ended with that and Alicia drew a card. Groaning when she had nothing to really help her against the new monster, she played a facedown and hoped that 4000 life pints would be enough to keep her in the duel.

"No moves? Don't worry, honey, it'll be over soon, because I activate the spell card The Shallow Grave! Now, we can both set a monster in defense mode from our graveyards. I choose Ebon Magician Curran!"

Alicia selected to set The Agent of Judgment – Saturn and did so, wondering why she would be allowed to bring back her monster. Allison, though she was a snot, knew what she was doing and must've had a reason for letting Saturn be revived. Brown eyes shot open as it hit her, but there was no time to redo the move.

She drew a card on her turn and studied it for a few moments before a smile crept across her face. Allison still had 4600 life points, 100 more than her own 4500, but that wouldn't matter in a moment. She switched Saturn into attack mode and waited, not attacking.

"My move then!" Allison commanded, not noticing how her opponent had a plan. "First, my life points hit 5200 because of Pikeru's effect, but now I flip summon Curran! Everyone, let's welcome her back to the game!"

Alicia didn't say anything, but smirked to herself as Allison continued, playing another Pot of Greed to draw cards. She then played another Trial of the Princess and another Black Pendant and equipped both to Curran as she had done with Pikeru.

"Curran, attack Saturn now!"

"Not so fast, Allison!" she shouted. "I activate my spell card! It's Enchanted Arrow! Now, all face up spells on your field are destroyed and you take 500 points of damage for each one, bringing you down to 4200 life points, but also dropping your magician's attack back to 1200. Now don't forget, she's still charging towards Saturn with only half as many points as my monster has."

Allison gasped. "Oh no!"

She closed her eyes tightly when Curran was destroyed and vanished from the field, taking 1200 life points along with her. Sadly, Allison had no cards left to use except Pikeru, and there was nothing she could do.

"This duel is over, Allison! I activate Change of Heart to take control of Pikeru!" The girl watched as her own monster left, floating over to Alicia's side and looking back at her. Alicia was going to win for sure, but shook her head. "I could just use your monster to end this with Saturn, but I won't. Not exactly. I play the spell known as Gift of the Martyr. Now, by sending Pikeru to the graveyard, I can increase Saturn's attack points by Pikeru's, giving Saturn 4400 points! So Saturn, do us all a favor and wipe her out!"

Her opponent screamed as her life points hit zero, staggering back a little. She glared at Alicia as the girl approached; her hand extended, and took Atticus' note out to show her.

"This is the note you wanted."

Distrust flooded through the brunette when the note was not handed over. Her eyes widened when Allison tore it to shreds in a flash and cast the pieces into the ocean. Rage boiled up inside the first year and she seemed to just stalk past the girl, but she had other intentions. In one quick, fluid motion, she gave the girl a hard bump and sent her into the water, glaring.

"Go. Be with your precious note, you bitch."

With that, she truly did leave, not even glancing back at the soaked Obelisk who was busy pulling herself back up on the dock. Though she tried not to show it, she felt like tearing in frustration. She had seen the note and rightfully gotten it when it was lost just like that.

"I won't tell Zane," she decided. "I can't have him know there was a note but it was lost. That wouldn't help his mood, but he might also do something crazy like try to locate the pieces. Well, maybe not, but it'll be better if he doesn't know. Atticus will explain if he gets back…"

She shook her head and slapped herself lightly at her chosen words.

"Not if. When. He'll explain WHEN he gets back…" She looked up at the sky and realized right away that it was nearly noon. She ran towards the school, planning to go to the infirmary. "Well, I hope Zane won't be too mad that I wasn't able to get a book for him!"

* * *

Me: I guess an odd place to end, but I didn't want this chapter to be too long. 

Zane: It's long already…

Me: That it is. Hey y'all! No flames please, 'cuz I don't think this here chapter's very good myself. I haven't written a duel in a while…

Fedelta: Calm yourself!


	12. Chapter 12

Me: After some time away from this, here we go!

Zane: Already? And I was just starting to enjoy it…

Me: Hush now!

* * *

Open Doors Still Close

Alicia continued to run towards the large building that was the school, though at least ninety-five percent of her believed that Zane wouldn't leave as soon as the nurse came back. No, she scolded herself as she ran at almost top speeds for having such a wish to get there on time. Fonda was kind and understanding, but she was still a nurse, and the girl knew from experience that nurses never let you leave on the spot if you had seemed particularly ill when you came to them. They would always ask you if you felt ready to leave, or if anything was bothering you at all, and sometimes they'd do one last quick checkup to make sure you were as you said. Probably to protect them from lawsuits if something happened after they let you go.

Syrus would be happy and relieved to know that Zane was perfectly fine as Alicia had seen. She felt bad for the short boy who had been required to attend classes after his score on the exam turned out to e too low for the school's liking and he was obviously worried about his brother. She'd get the whole group together later, she decided, and maybe it'd just be over.

Still, Alicia couldn't get what Harrington had said about her feelings towards Zane out of her mind. When Syrus' brother had collapsed on the ground in front of her, a surge of panic went raced through her like fire. She had to feel something towards him, but she couldn't be sure that Harrington's belief was correct. How could she know? She'd never had a boyfriend or even liked someone that way before, so for her it was next to impossible to tell. Whatever love was, it never made itself so easily understood.

When she did reach the infirmary doors, they opened immediately, allowing her to rush inside. Actually, that wasn't quite right. They opened when she got there, but not because of her but because of another. Because that fact was unnoticed by the girl, she had no time to stop when she realized the recently cured Obelisk was standing directly in front of her. She yelped as she crashed into him, knocking the unprepared student on his rear.

"Zane! I didn't see you there!"

"Obviously…" he grumbled. He cut her off before she could speak. "Full apologies later, okay? I'd like it if you could get off of me first."

A deep, red blush was rose from her neck to her cheeks as she looked down and realized that she had fallen on his lap. She stood up sharply, trying to apologize for that alone, but her tongue felt swollen and her words were jumbled. He stood up after her and dusted off the back of his white jacket. Originally, they would've just left the infirmary, but having heard the noise, Fonda Fontaine rushed out to them.

"Goodness me! Take it easy, the both of you!" she scolded. "Zane, I just released you! Don't get yourself hurt even before you leave!"

"Sorry, Ms. Fontaine," the brunette apologized. "It was my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

The woman sighed, shaking her head. "Kids these days," she mumbled to herself as she headed back into her office. "You'd think they would know better…"

"Hey Zane, you're not ticked, are you?"

He sighed. Because the classes for those who possessed a low grade on the previous exam weren't close to being finished, the two had nothing to do. Yes, there were places to go on the island, and Zane would've gone to the lighthouse, but he was a little surprised that Alicia seemed to be walking in the opposite direction.

"No, I'm not. It was an accident, but still, you did leave me with that book all day. Where were you?"

"Uh, I got a little caught up," she said uncertainly, trying her best to say something that he wouldn't question. If she wasn't going to mention Atticus' note to him, then she certainly couldn't mention her duel with Allison. The second he asked her why they dueled at all, she'd have nothing to cover up with that would be reasonable. "I'm sorry, Zane. But hey, let's look on the bright side! You're out of the infirmary."

"Yeah, but almost just as bored out of my mind." He stopped walking. "Hey, I think I'll just go to the lighthouse for a little while. You're welcome to come if you want."

Before he could turn, she grabbed his arm and pulled, letting him know that his idea was not liked at all. He blinked and let her pull him along in confusion. Not only did she not want to go there, but she didn't even want him going there by himself. Was there something by the ocean that she wanted to keep him from? He shook his head.

"Alicia, are you trying to keep me away from something?"

She froze. "Uh, no. Nothing at all. I just…" In a flash, she came up with the perfect story. She loosened her grip on his arm and sighed, trying to sound as real as possible. "I just don't think you should be staying all alone down there, that's all. From what I've gathered, you did that a lot when Atticus disappeared."

A delicate eyebrow raised in question. "So?"

"Can't you see? Being like that wasn't good for you, and that's why you weren't the same personality-wise. You drove yourself crazy with all that isolation, and you can't go there again. It'll revive the habit and you'll change."

He was silent for a moment. At first, the brunette didn't know what to make of it, but she soon learned. Much to her dismay, his eyes narrowed and both anger and annoyance were present within them. She didn't think saying what she had would have such an ill effect on him, but apparently, they had.

"And I'm supposed to believe that what you say means anything?" he asked coldly. She didn't answer the obviously rhetorical question. "How long have you known me, eh? What, maybe a month and a half at best? What I mean to say is that it's not long, not long enough to know anything. You're not my mother, Alicia, so don't tell me what's not good for me to do. It's none of your business."

Brown eyes blinked several times in shock as they watched the retreating back that had appeared to them so sharply. She could feel the anger emitting from the student as he left her standing on the path and slapped a hand to her forehead as a slight punishment for her stupidity.

"How could I forget?" she asked herself guiltily. "Zane doesn't like people worrying about him like that. But I can't help it!" She slammed her boot heel into the dirt. "If he keeps up what he was doing; isolation, all-night researching, and self guilt too, it's gonna get deep into him, even more so than it is. He's going to fall apart, and when Atticus comes back, I don't know if even he can pick up the pieces."

Golden hair streamed behind Alexis as she made her way to the pier. Mindy and Jasmine's scores on Crowler's exam left much to be desired, and so they were still in the lecture room with the other students whose scores had been to the same effect. The blonde herself had only achieved a ninety-three on the exam; a low mark compared to what she usually got. Unlike her two friends, she was lucky to have read other material as a way of studying and read the study guide. If she hadn't, she was sure her mark would have dropped because that exam hadn't seemed to use the guide at all. Even having the guide in front of them wouldn't have made it any easier, except for maybe those who hadn't even looked it over briefly for some reason.

When she reached the lighthouse, she was a little surprised to see cerulean hair blowing in the strong breeze. She knew Zane liked to come to the lighthouse to think, but she had thought he would be with Alicia after what she heard happened to him. Alicia would've no doubt visited him long enough that she would've also left with him, so where was she? She approached the other and was shocked to hear what came out of his mouth.

"Are you also here to tell me that I shouldn't be alone?"

She blinked. Did the two have a fight? "No, I'm not. Have I ever said that to you?"

"No," he replied, not looking at her. "But there is always a first time for everything, isn't there?"

"I guess, but I'm not here for that." She sighed. "What's wrong?"

"Is that all you can ever ask?"

"What do you…"

He turned around to face her, his blue eyes blazing with anger. She faltered and took a step back, unused to seeing such anger from someone as calm as Zane had always been. Without warning, he punched the side of the lighthouse in annoyance, earning a surprised gasp from her. As quickly as he'd done it, he sank against the side and sat down on the ground, knees up and his head in his hands.

"That's all anyone ever asks me anymore. It's always if I'm all right, or safe, or feeling well. Why do you want to know? Do you think I'm that frail?"

With a sad smile accompanied by a sigh of understanding, she sat beside him and pulled him to her. Alexis leaned against the white lighthouse and allowed Zane to rest his head on her shoulder. As a mean of comforting him, she rested her hand on his shoulder, but did no more and said nothing. She would allow him to continue, as he did.

"I'm sorry. It's not you." He sighed. "You're the only one who gets it, Alexis, the only one out of everyone in this school. I know it's because Atticus is you're brother and you understand because of that."

"Zane, maybe the other's don't understand as you want them to, but I think Alicia might. After all, all three of us are similar in the respect that we've all lost someone we care about. Maybe…"

"No. Whether she'd lost someone doesn't really have anything to do with this. Alexis, you and she are not the same. You get it, and she doesn't."

"You say that about all of them. But Zane, I think you need to help them understand. You're not letting them know how you feel about everything because you leave whenever they say something like that. It hurts, I know, but it's nobody's fault. They can't possibly know if you don't tell them. I think that's all they mean to say when you hear it as them telling you not to be alone. They want to understand so they can help you, but they don't know how to ask."

"Why not say that?" he questioned softly. "If they want to understand, why don't they just say so? Why do they have to say things that make me feel useless? I've heard enough of it!" He pulled away. "I've heard it all before. They all would say not to do something or not to go somewhere, even though they do themselves. Even when they return they won't stand for me going there. I can take care of myself, and I'd like everyone to realize that!"

Shaking her head, Alexis slowly stood and turned away, beginning to walk away from the lighthouse and Zane. She felt more than sorry for him, as she knew what he had been referring to in his last complaint. If her brother were there, she would scold him for what he did after the blue-haired Obelisk had gone into the dorms. She would tell him never to do such a thing again, even if he didn't mean to hurt Zane so. Still, she could tell him nothing.

"Where are you going?"

She sighed and paused for a moment, but did not look back. "I don't know what more I can say."

To Alicia, it seemed as if the temperature had dropped lower since Zane had left. The clouds in the sky were growing darker and larger, and she knew another rain was on its way. But she didn't care enough to bolt then and there for her room, no. Instead, she dragged her feet along the path to the dorms, kicking away small stones as she passed them. It felt like everything that had been worked for was coming down slowly. Zane had just started to open up to her, and now she felt as that opened door slammed in her face.

In the distance, she spotted Harrington, but he was talking to Alexis and even though the other girl didn't even seem to be hearing him, Alicia turned her head and left the path she had been on. She would take the indirect route back to her dorm, and she'd stay there until the next morning, or even still after that. Why go out the next morning anyway? It'd probably be all muddy and disgusting anyway because of the rain that was sure to come.

She looked out the window in her room and sighed when she looked at the clouds, darkened to the point that they were almost black. A crash of thunder was heard that made her jump and wrap her arms around herself, a bolt of lightening tearing through the sky. She'd never been one for thunder. Back when her mother was alive, she would many times run to Aaron's room in the middle of the night when she heard the noise, and he would always shush her and explain that it would not harm her. After her brother changed, she never went to his room again, but that didn't mean her fear was gone. Violent winds blew thick, fat raindrops into her window and she gasped, closing the drapes in a hurry. The storm would be far worse than most back home, especially since it was an island that they were on. She was not inland where the rain was lighter, and she knew that well.

"At least it can't get in here," she said quietly, wrapping her blanket around her on the bed while she pulled her knees close to her body. "Aaron said it could never get inside."

* * *

Me: URG! It's short and crappy!

Zane: Hmmm…

Me: I'm sorry all for this chapter, but I need to continue the story, so can y'all bear with me please? Thanks so much! I don't mind if you don't like this one, 'cuz I don't, but no flames please!

Zane: …


	13. Chapter 13

Me: Another chapter that's expected to be crappy!

Zane: …

Me: Well, don't worry! This string of bad chapters will come to an end one day!

* * *

What Means Nothing at All

"It's really coming down out there. Thank God for this dorm…"

Alicia was still on the bed, waiting for the deafening booming sound of the thunder to finally cease. Until it did, she felt as though she couldn't move an inch. Each time lightening would flash by her window, illuminating the room, she would bury herself more into the blankets.

"It can't get in…" she told herself. "It can't get in…"

Rain pounded on the glass window and for once, she doubted what Aaron had said. Maybe he was wrong. No, not wrong, just only partially correct. Storms back home paled in comparison to he current one when speaking in severity. Perhaps on of the weaker storms of the city where they had lived couldn't enter a building, but perhaps one as strong as what was going on could. The only way to tell would be to wait.

She couldn't help but scream in surprise when the lights went out after a small sound made by a spark. The only light that entered her room then became the blinding, white flashes of lightening outside, and that was something Alicia was not particularly comfortable with. In fact, she hugged her knees tightly to her chest and tried to take calming breaths, hoping that it would steady her.

"It's just a temporary power outage. The lights will go back on soon…"

Before she could say anymore, there was the sound of someone pounding on her door. She rose and wobbled over, blocking out the noise of the storm to the best of her ability and let her hand close around the metal doorknob. She opened the door with a shaky hello and blinked when she saw Alexis, breathing hard.

"Alexis? What's wrong?" She couldn't believe the other girl could have such fear of the storm.

"I need your help, and we have to leave now. Harrington is already outside. It's Zane."

"Leave?" Alicia questioned with a timid glance at the window behind her. "As in go out in that?" The blonde nodded. "Are you crazy? It's not safe!"

"Safe or not, we need to. Harrington found me just minutes ago to tell me. Zane never went back to the dorms."

"You mean he's out there? Alone and in that?"

"Yes. We have to split up and go look for him, because he can't stay out in that all night without catching something, and he just got out of the infirmary. But we need to go now that the lights are off! This place has a generator for backup power, and when the lights are on, it'll be hard to sneak out." Her eyes narrowed. "So are you coming or not?"

The fact that Zane was in potential danger settled it for the girl. In one motion, she ran to the closet for her one and only jacket and ran back, slipping the brown jacket on. With a nod, she and Alexis raced through the dorms, careful on their way down the flight of stairs, and quietly opened the front door. They didn't see any guards outside, but moved quickly and quietly nonetheless to avoid anything that might be there. As Alexis had said, Harrington was there, waiting by one of the now-defective front lampposts.

"Ready to go?" he asked, nodding to her.

Alicia didn't even notice. She followed along with the group until they had gone a little down the path so that the dorms were far enough away so that they couldn't be seen from anyone within them. When they stopped, she knew they would be discussing where each person would go to search, and she didn't have any real ideas.

"I'll check the lighthouse!" Alexis said, actually shouting in order to be heard over the howling winds. "He was there earlier! Maybe he never left!"

"I'll check the school!" Harrington decided. "Maybe he went there to get out of the rain!"

She said nothing. Those were the only two places she had thought of him going to, but she had to say something. "I'll stop and check the Slifer dorms to see if he went with Syrus!"

Apparently, they considered it to be a very reasonable place to look, because they nodded approvingly and each took off in their individual directions. The brunette was also about to follow and go where she had said she would, but another idea hit her. Without mildly considering whether or not it would be a better place to look, or right to go somewhere entirely different and not let Alexis and Harrington know, she raced down off the path, praying that her choice would be beneficial.

By the time Harrington reached the school, he was almost out of breath from running so far with the icy winds and fierce rain in his face. He leaned against the side of the great building for support while he gathered himself and then began to look around, calling the missing Obelisk's name out loud.

"Zane? Are you here? Zane!"

He stepped into the dry building, shutting the door as quickly as possible, and jumped a little when he realized that there was no light at all. Actually, the emergency lights that lined the halls were on, but they produced more of a glow instead of actual light that made the corners visible. He continued anyway, mentally grimacing once when he heard how his footsteps echoed off the walls in the dim, deserted hallway.

"Zane?" His voice was more of a whisper. "Hello? You in here?"

No answer came the many times he called and so he continued to search throughout the building, but to no avail. He was pretty sure that the third year was indeed not within the walls of the school, but he had to check everywhere, nonetheless. However, that didn't mean he truly wanted to. He wanted to find Zane, but the dark halls of the school were enough to creep anyone out, and especially with the sound of the storm that was still heard inside.

"Why does this place have to be so spooky at night? Now I know how the kids in detention must feel…"

A sound was heard down the hallway, seeming as though something lighter than a person was moving at a lazy pace towards him. The tennis captain blinked and headed forward, wondering if Zane was actually there.

"Zane? Is that you?"

The sound stopped, but he saw nothing, not that he could see too far in the dim lighting. He closed his mouth sharply when he felt something brush against his leg, biting down hard on his tongue. With a deep breath, he looked down at what had come and laughed mockingly at himself, scolding himself for such worry.

"Pharaoh! I didn't expect to see you here at this time."

The large cat opened its mouth and meowed a long, solid pitch before turning, wishing for the teen to follow. He shrugged and did so, wondering if the cat could possibly be leading him to Zane. After all, maybe it had seen the other and gone to find someone. He did have high doubts of this, mainly because he didn't know if Pharaoh was all that bright.

When they rounded a corner, a light was immediately shined in his face. He brought his hand up to shield himself form the light, but was able to bring it down soon after for the light had lowered to the ground.

"Harrington," a deep voice recognized. "I thought I heard someone moving about in here."

He looked up to see both the chancellor and Banner, Pharaoh settled in his master's arms. The dark-haired professor raised an eyebrow, apparently not expecting to see a student in the building. That wasn't so hard to believe, though, because all students should've been back in their dorms. The chancellor noticed this.

"My boy, I can't begin to wonder. Why are you walking about the school at this hour? And in this weather? The storm has certainly taken its toll on you, I can see."

Harrington blushed, embarrassed about his disheveled appearance. "I know I'm breaking curfew, sirs," he said. "But I simply had to leave the dorms."

"And why is that?"

He swallowed. "Sir, Zane Truesdale never returned to the dorms tonight, and we knew he had to still be out, and not near the dorms at all. We went looking for him because we were worried. I know it was rash, but we acted on emotion."

"You say 'we', Harrington. Who else has left their rooms?"

"Alexis Rhodes and Alicia Rayonetto. Please sir, it was my idea to look for Zane. Don't punish them."

Sheppard smiled and rested a hand on the teen's shoulder. "There will be no punishment for wanting to help someone in need. Harrington, I will alert the security staff to search the island. They'll find Zane, and the other two of you. In the meantime, stay here. We will wait for them in my office."

"Zane? Where are you? Zane?"

Alexis stumbled down the path to the lighthouse as fast as she could, panting when she reached the dock. She could barely see in the darkness, but she pushed herself forwards and refused to give up her search of the area. Briefly, she looked up towards the Slifer dorms, but was surprised to not see Alicia there.

"Where is she? She said she would check with Sy about Zane. I hope she didn't run into something!"

Taking small, quick steps at a time, she drove herself towards the tall, white structure. Once, she felt the ground slip from under her and fell down, barely putting her hands out in time to break the fall. She winced as the rough ground scraped the heels of her hands and also parts of her palms as well. For a moment, she just remained there, calming herself and remembering the dire situation.

"Zane? Zane!"

Her continuous calls went unanswered, as the previous ones had been, and it didn't take long for her to figure out that the male Obelisk wasn't there. Sheets of water fell down on her from the sky, soaking her jacket and her hair, and making her shake with cold. A strong gust of wind blew the blonde girl a little, causing her to slip on a puddle of water and crash into the lighthouse with a groan. A lightening bolt split between two clouds overhead along with a booming crash of violent thunder, brightening the night sky with frightful light.

"God, it's cold…" she murmured, wrapping her arms around her shivering body and pulling her jacket tighter. "Zane, how can you be out in this? You must be…"

She was cut off when a tall, fast wave came, rising above the dock and crashing into the lighthouse. She could only yelp a little when the seawater flooded into her face and pulled her away from the structure. Though it hadn't pulled her into the water itself, the pier was still wet and slippery from the excess rain and she could do nothing to prevent her foot slipping and plunging towards the rolling waves below.

Alexis acted fast and grabbed the edge of the dock with both hands, but knowing full well that another strong wave would be enough to pull her under. The water was as cold as ice and it frightened her to feel her legs becoming numb. She was losing feeling in her body where the water covered and if she couldn't get out in time, her hands would go too, and then she would let go unintentionally.

"Help! Somebody help me!"

Though in the back of her mind she felt that her cries meant nothing, she acted on instinct. The girl couldn't tell if tears were flowing, but she suspected that they were because of how scared she was. Her eyes had shut tightly, but slid open when she heard a voice, acting as a miracle to her.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?"

"Over here!"

Soon after she called, Alexis felt as a sturdy hand took hers and helped her up onto the dock. A coat was wrapped around her and she instantly felt warmer, not that she felt as though she were in Hawaii. No, she was still freezing due to her soaked clothes, but no longer was she worried about freezing to the point where she would die or lose her body to numbness.

"Are you all right? Come on, we'll take you back to the school."

It was security. One of them took her arm gently and helped her up the path because they knew she wouldn't be able to walk alone at first with her shaking legs. She sighed and went alone, her eyes closed and hoping that Alicia and Harrington had better luck than she did.

Alicia was having no such luck as she stumbled and tripped while running towards the large forest. Yes, she knew it was a long shot, but there was a chance that Zane might be waiting out the storm in the abandoned dorm. He had wanted to obviously be alone, and that was the one place that no one would look. Well, no one but her, but he must not have considered her.

"It doesn't surprise me," she told herself with a sigh. "He probably doesn't want to see me again, but I guess he'll have to deal with it. Well, next time he shouldn't go off like that!"

She put her hands over her ears and whimpered a little as a deafening crash of thunder cracked over her in the sky. No matter how much she hated the storm, she couldn't imagine staying in her dorm instead of searching for Zane. If he needed help, she would always willingly provide it, even if he didn't want her to. It didn't matter.

"I have to find him… I can't leave him out here…"'

When she finally did reach the forest's edge, she had to take a minute to gather her confidence. She wasn't ready to run at top speeds into the dark, creepy woods in the storm, because God knows what could happen. A tree might even fall over on her, and that was something she was praying not to happen. With one, deep breath, she nodded to herself and trekked inside the darkness of the woods.

"Damn, it's dark," she whispered, pulling her jacket close. "I wish I had a flashlight…"

The rain was much lighter with the tall trees blocking it, but the thunder only seemed louder. She grimaced as her boots sank in thick mud and pulled her way through the area, which seemed more like a swamp because of all the heavy rain. Twigs floated past her when she walked through places where the soil was thinner and sometimes her ankles would be covered in muddy water.

She let out a scream when her foot got itself under an unseen root and pitched forward to the floor. She could only get one hand out in time and crashed down on her side, knocking the side of her head on the forest floor, and the small rocks that were on it. She scrambled to her knees, spitting out the disgusting, unknown things that had gone into her mouth and wiped it with her sleeve, trying to forget the taste.

"Ugh, that's sick…"

She stood on her feet again and took a moment to steady herself with one hand resting against a tree. The rough bark scratched her hand when she slipped a little but she practically ignored it, stepping over the root and continuing on her way. Branches whipped in her face, leaving long scratches and causing her to stumble even more as she tried her best to move on, determined to reach her destination. A heavy stroke of thunder and a white flash caused her to squeal and jump, therefore unintentionally driving her knee straight up into a rough-barked tree. She groaned in pain as she felt the top layer of skin almost scraped clean and told herself over and over to calm down. To not be so affected by the storm itself.

"It won't hurt me, but I can hurt myself…" she said inwardly, trying her best to say something that Aaron might say. It didn't work to the fullest, but it was enough for her and so, she moved on.

She didn't come upon the dorm yet, but she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her stop. It was white. Blinking, she hurried over to what it was and gasped, kneeling down and taking the student into her arms.

"Zane!"

It was the third-year Obelisk without a doubt, but he had seen better days. He blue eyes were closed and he breathed calmly, so she could easily tell that he was out cold. There were several scratches on his pale face and when she felt around, a bump on his head was discovered. His white jacket was muddied and the thick, brown substance had also found its way into his hair as well. Feeling tears come to her eyes, the girl hugged him close and buried her face in his neck.

"God Zane…" she whispered. "Why did you come so far out here? Can't you see it's not safe?"

It was long, but she eventually heard footsteps approaching with speed. Lights shone on her as a group of three people ran through the trees towards her, each wearing the green uniforms of the island's security. Alicia smiled weakly at them as one bent down to check on Zane.

"You're the remaining two, aren't you?" She nodded. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know. I found him like this, but I'm guessing he tripped and hit his head on something."

The trio nodded and another, sturdier built one stepped forward. He took Zane into his arms while the other who had just stood again, a woman, helped Alicia to her feet. The third took out a radio and reported that the two had been found to the other security staff.

"You two will be just fine. We'll take you both to the infirmary."

Once again, the brunette smiled and looked over at Zane. She was worried beyond belief because of his unconscious state, but inside, she insisted to herself that he would be all right. Another crash of thunder echoed in the sky, but she didn't even blink at it. In fact, she didn't care at all. Finally, she had learned that it was nothing to fear as she had done, because when compared to true things, like Zane's well being, it didn't matter at all.

* * *

Me: There we go! Actually, I don't think this came out as bad as I had envisioned it to be!

Zane: I'm saved!

Me: Actually, you're out cold.

Zane: Ugh, NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!

Me: No worries, little dude! You'll wake up next chapter, I promise!

Zane: I'd better…


	14. Chapter 14

Me: Well, here's the next chapter!

Zane: That I'll wake up in!

Me: Yeah, yeah, you will.

* * *

A Confession

The trek back to the school was much easier with the security there, mainly because with their flashlights, they could actually SEE where they were going. Alicia tried to just concentrate on getting back to the school where she would be out of the storm, but the storm didn't matter to her anymore. It wasn't nearly as important as…

She looked over at the Obelisk held in the arms of one of the security staff. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop worrying about him. He hadn't been conscious when she found him and that hadn't changed in the time to group had been walking to the school. The last time he was out, he was out for a long time, and she didn't want to have to spend all day every day just waiting for his eyes to open once. It would torture her.

"Zane, please be all right this time…"

The female staff member walking beside her rested an understanding hand on her shoulder sympathetically. Still, Alicia couldn't help but feel that though the woman might think otherwise, that she didn't truly understand what was going on. The girl felt that way because she wasn't entirely sure that she herself knew. The woman must've thought that she was either his close friend or his girlfriend, and she couldn't be sure about either of them. She felt that she considered him more than a best friend, but yet she couldn't say for sure that she liked him as a crush type of liking. It was complicated, too complicated for her to focus on at the moment.

As minutes passed, the main academy building got closer and closer, and soon the group would arrive at its front doors. It had taken much longer to reach the school then than it had taken Alicia to run from the Obelisk dorms to the forest earlier on, and that was because of the fact that they were walking instead of running. Yes, they wanted to reach the school as soon as possible, but they wouldn't risk tripping, falling, slipping, and all other things that fell in that category. It was too risky.

Finally, the comforting feeling of a lack of pounding rain overhead greeted them as they entered the school. The lights had begun running on the power generators long ago and so the halls were perfectly lit, giving the group an easy path to follow. Originally the security had been instructed to meet in the chancellor's office, but going to the infirmary first seemed like a better idea due to Zane's condition. They would contact the man from there, once everything was settled.

When they entered the room, the unconscious Obelisk was laid gently on the bed and the man who had been holding him pulled out a radio to contact the chancellor. Alicia pulled the white blankets up to Zane's neck and took a seat in the chair beside the bed, her eyes never seeming to leave him, though they were actually unfocused. She could barely hear the woman beside her as she once again tried to give her comfort with her words. She could barely notice anything that was happening.

The door opened quickly as the chancellor and Banner hurried inside with Alexis and Harrington, who were hurrying a little more. All four saw Alicia by the bedside, but she didn't notice them. All she could think about was the third year lying in front of her, and how she felt responsible for what happened. Maybe if she had thought about what he'd think of her comment before she said it and held back, he wouldn't be lying there. Maybe they'd be inside the Obelisk dorms drinking coffee or something like that. They'd be anywhere but within the white walls of the room she felt Zane knew too well and he would be doing anything but lying still in a bed.

Alexis took a step forwards towards the girl, trying to get her attention. "Alicia…"

She had no time to really say anything at all before Fonda rushed inside to do her duty as the nurse. Though both Alicia and Alexis had scratches that could use some attention, she hurried over to Zane and stood on the side opposite to Alicia, who took no notice of her being there. Alexis blinked when she checked the student's pulse, but Banner quickly whispered to her that she was only doing so because he was unconscious and not because she actually thought there would be no response. The blonde felt better about it, but it didn't ease all her worries. She worried for Zane, of course, but she also worried about Alicia. The girl hadn't said one word since they came and she didn't look like she was about to.

"His pulse is fine," the nurse reported. "But he's paling and the possibility of him catching something is very likely to happen. How serious it will be I can't say, but it'll be at least a cold. He probably won't be up and about tomorrow and will be here unless I see that he's fine to go." She paused and breathed in. "Now, Alicia, Alexis, Harrington, I think it would be best if you returned to you dorms now. You may visit him in the morning."

Alexis and Harrington nodded and walked towards the door with one last look at Zane, but Alicia didn't even act as if she heard the order. She just continued to sit and stare blankly down at the student, and it was a little unnerving to watch.

"Alicia, it's time to go," Fonda repeated.

Still no response. Though she may not have reacted at all, Alicia heard every word that Fonda said in her evaluation of Zane's state of being. Catch something that may or may not be serious? That wasn't what she had wanted to hear. Something like, "He's had a hit to the head, but nothing bad. He'll be good as new by tomorrow morning," would have been a more favorable thing to listen to. But that wasn't what the truth was, just like when her mother was sick in the hospital. She hadn't wanted to hear the words "terminal illness," but they had come nonetheless. And they had been true.

The red-haired woman stood next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder before gently turning the girl to face her. "I have the feeling that you're feeling guilty. Don't be, Alicia. It wasn't your fault."

Without a word, the brunette nodded and stood. She didn't believe what Fonda said about it not being her fault, but she figured that was the only way to get out of it. She walked over to Harrington and Alexis, sighing as she followed them out of the room. As soon as she entered the hallway, she wanted to run back inside and never leave, but that wasn't allowed and she couldn't do it, like when she wanted to stay at the hospital all night when her mother was sick. Her father had just said a cold, sharp no to her, but Aaron had come later and said that their father only worried that she would become depressed if she stayed in there too long. She didn't believe him, but since he was her older brother, she took his hand and walked back to the car with him agreeably. She didn't want to disappoint him.

"But I did…" she whispered. "I caused mother to die…"

"What's that?" Harrington said from next to her, making her realize that she had just spoken aloud. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." That was the only answer he got from her before she quickened her pace and practically sped off to the dorms, leaving the confused pair of Obelisks behind.

"She's not fine," Alexis commented as they continued on their way. "One might say that she never is."

"Yeah, I know," he answered. "But when it's Zane, it's worse. He really has an effect on her, you know?"

"I've seen it. What do you make of it?"

"I think she's in love with him." Alexis blinked. "Yeah, I know they fight sometimes, but when he's in trouble, it's like she never wants to leave him. You saw her today, Alexis. She wasn't even paying attention to Fonda because she was so focused on him."

She sighed. "Yeah, and she feels responsible too. He was alone because he wanted it that way after they had a fight. It wasn't a name-calling battle like they used to have, in fact it wasn't a battle at all. She said something about wishing he wouldn't do something because it wasn't good for him and he lost it."

"Over that? Why?"

Alexis looked at the ground. "My brother. See, when Atticus heard about the abandoned dorm in the forest, he had a desire to go there immediately. But because it was rumored to be dangerous, he didn't want Zane going there because he felt it wasn't safe for him. Zane was upset, but he tried to ignore it for a while, which worked, but not forever. Eventually, he went there by himself. He didn't plan on Atticus finding out, but however he did, he did." She stopped. "When my brother found out, he went ballistic. He screamed at Zane, saying how he was stupid for going there alone and things like that. Then he stopped talking to him. It really had a negative effect on Zane, one that I'm sure Atticus didn't mean to create. However, he disappeared before he apologized or even said anything at all to him, so Zane never really got over it, I guess. Now, he hates it when people worry about him. He thinks they think he's weak and can't take care of himself."

Harrington shook his head. "I never would've guessed that he worried about that kind of thing."

"Yeah, he does."

"Well, now that we're here, why don't we get together for coffee or something tomorrow? It'll be like a da-…"

"Sorry, but give up on that already," she said in an annoyed tone, quickening her pace. "You'd think you'd learn…"

Alicia slammed the door to her room and changed for bed as quickly as she could before hopping under the covers. She wanted to fall asleep so that this nightmare could be over as soon as possible. She wanted to wake up and run to see Zane to find him awake and with a small smile on his face. She didn't want to wait anymore for that, and so she closed her eyes and willed for sleep to come, which it quickly did.

_The hallway was dark with only one, small light at the very end of it, peaking out from under a closed door. Nothing about the place would seem familiar to anyone, as it was just pure darkness, but Alicia recognized it perfectly. She had been in the same hallway when her mother was dying._

_"Someone's dying…" she whispered in shock. "Someone I care for!"_

_As fast as her legs could carry her, she ran down the hall towards the door, determined to reach it so that there would be enough time to see the person who was behind it. The hall seemed to get longer as she ran, but she had expected that, as she had dealt with it before. She just willed herself to keep going and did so, relieved when she felt the cool metal of the doorknob in her grasp. She yanked the door open and ran inside, gasping in horror at who was lying still in the bed._

_"Aaron!"_

_Her brother was frightfully pale compared to his usual skin tone and his eyes were closed heavily. A thick, white blanket was draped over him from his neck down and it reminded the girl too much of the blanket over her mother's body. When she looked closer, she realized that it wasn't a blanket. It was the same silky fabric decorated with elaborate lacework that her mother's corpse had been laid on when she was placed in the coffin to be buried. Never could she forget the roses portrayed in the delicate lace as she had seen at the funeral when she looked into the coffin. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she kneeled beside the bed and brought a hand to touch her brother's face gently._

_"Aaron…"_

_To her surprise, he opened his deep-brown eyes a little and breathed laboriously, then focusing his gaze on her. She saw a look of betrayal in his eyes and drew her hand back instantly as if his skin had been burning. _

_"Alicia… How could you?" he whispered in a strained, dying voice. "How could you let me go?"_

_Her world felt as if was crashing down around her. Aaron coughed once before once again breathing unnaturally as he had been, but that didn't last for long. In only a few moments, the breathing stopped and his eyes slid shut, never to open again._

_"Aaron!" she screamed, shaking him by the shoulders as she let tears stream down her face. "Wake up!" He didn't move. She rested her head on his chest and cried into him. "God no… Not him…"_

_The white in the room began crumbling down, shattering like broken glass as black replaced it. A few of the shards fell from what had been the ceiling above them at speeds so fast that Alicia had barely the time to think about moving before they fell upon her. They pierced through her back and fell through her heart, but she felt as if she couldn't feel a thin. Her eyes were dull as she watched the entire room fade away into darkness._

_"Alicia…"_

_The voice was so soothing and kind that it could only belong to one person. She whipped her head around to see her own mother holding Aaron's still, lifeless body in her arms. Her face was different, masked by grief._

_"How can you do this? First me and now my baby? Why?"_

_"Mother…"_

_No answer came, for the two, like the white room, shattered and fell as broken glass upon the floor._

"No!"

Alicia shot up in bed from the nightmare in a panic. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and was about to tell herself to sleep again when the image of Aaron lying dead in the white lace reappeared in her mind. Before she knew what she was doing, she had grabbed the phone and dialed a number, praying to God that there would be an answer.

"Hello?" a tired voice answered.

"Aaron…" she whispered, enjoying the moment as she heard her brother's quite-alive voice. "It's Alicia. I…"

"Why the hell are you calling me at eleven o' clock at night? I know you have the same hours at that school, Alicia. What is it now? If you're gonna ask to come home, I can't say yes…"

"It's not that!" she snapped, feeling her eyes become wet again. "I wanted to make sure you were all right, that's all! Look, something happened and when I went to bed…" She sniffled and took a moment to calm down. "I had a dream. You were in a bed, lying dead in the same lace that mother was lying on at the funeral. Before you died, you asked me how could I leave you, and then I saw you and mother. You were still dead, but she asked me how I could kill her and then you? I was scared all right? I know it's childish, but I can't help it! I don't want you to die, Aaron!"

He didn't reply for a few minutes. "Sis, I'm sorry. It was never your fault what happened to mother and I've always known that, and deep down, father knows it too. I'm not going anywhere, all right?"

"All right…"

"Now go back to bed and don't worry. Sleep well, little sis. I love you."

She put the phone down and slid back into bed, now sure that she could sleep better. He loved her. He really did love her after all that had happened. She normally wouldn't have believed him, but there was something about his voice that sounded truthful, like he really meant what he said. A small smile on her face, she closed her eyes and this time, settled into a more peaceful sleep…

When light did shine through the window, there was no one in the bed. Alicia had left the room long before and was presently running down the path and pushing past other early risers on the way, telling a quick apology to whoever she had actually pushed out of her way. Yes, she knew she should've learned that pushing was wrong since the first time she did it while running to the chancellor's office in a hurry when Syrus and Jaden were required to duel, but where she was going was equally important to her.

The green infirmary door slid open too slowly for her liking, but she didn't waste precious time thinking about stupid things like that. She rushed to the bedside of the third year Obelisk that she had upset the previous day and sighed in relief when he opened his eyes and sat up.

"Alicia? What are you…"

He was cut off when she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his neck, sniffling just a little. He was caught off guard by her sudden actions and said nothing due to surprise, but that surprise only increased with her next words.

"I love you."

* * *

Me: Well, what do y'all think? 

Zane: I'm awake BUT I'm probably really sick? Can't you EVER give me a break?

Me: Not entirely, as you can see, but after you get better, I think you'll be fine for a while. (I think…)


	15. Chapter 15

Me: Here we go again!

Zane: I'm not talking to you. You put me in the infirmary AGAIN.

Me: Fine, fine, just sit there and be quiet…

* * *

Confessions Heard and Spread

Zane didn't say anything or really react at all to what Alicia said, but that wasn't exactly a good thing. Actually, he didn't respond because he didn't even know if he heard her correctly. After all, Fonda had told him that he had a fever, so maybe it was having a negative effect on his hearing. That was the only real explanation he could come up with, so the moment he gathered himself, he asked about it.

"What?"

She released her hold and sat back in the chair with a sigh. It was clear as day to her that not only had he not expected that, but he wasn't sure about it too. Why should he be? Hell, she herself wasn't even sure of it. She felt that she meant the words when they flew out of her mouth without control, but how she meant it, she wasn't sure.

"I said I love you," she answered, meeting his gaze. "Look, I know what you're thinking, but it just kind of flew out."

He shook his head. "I'm not insulted or anything, Alicia, if that's what you think I'm thinking. It's just, I can't say I expected to hear that, but I guess you figured that out, right?"

"Yeah, it wasn't real hard to tell by the way you froze up."

"Probably." He sighed. "Either way, I don't really think of you that way. I mean, I thought you knew that because I could've sworn that you know how I feel about Atticus."

"Yeah, I know. You told me, Zane." She smiled. "Of course, it's not so straightforward, I'll say. See, I know I mean it somehow, but how, I can't be sure. I know about you and Atticus and I know I mean it, but those two things don't go together. All I know is that I love you, but I can't say for sure that I'm in love with you, because I don't think I am."

"This is why I try to stay out of things. You must realize that you're making no sense whatsoever right now."

She pouted. "I think I am. Maybe you're not sharp enough to pick up on it, sweet pea. Anyway, I guess I can't blame you…"

"I thought you gave up on the nicknames…"

"Of course not, Zanie. Actually, I might have, but since you've reminded me of just how fun it is to annoy you with the names, I think I'll keep it up. Tell me, which name do you prefer? Pick one or I'll pick for you."

"None of them…" he said in an annoyed tone. "But if you'll just die otherwise, I guess you can say Zanie, since it's still somewhat my name…"

"Okay, Zanie, but you picked the most boring one…"

Alicia knew she couldn't stay for too long, since Fonda could run in at any given moment and declare that Zane was being deprived of too much rest, which translated to get out. She did understand the woman to a point this time, because Zane didn't really look to good. The nurse was probably right about him catching something after being out in that cold rain the night before.

The possibility of Zane having caught something was proven true to Alicia when he suddenly jerked forward with a cough, sneeze, whatever it was. It happened again, and when she realized that the third year had actually coughed and sneezed at the same time, the girl was glad that she hadn't developed what he had. Secretly, she hoped it wasn't contagious, because she could just imagine Zane, fully recovered, sitting next her bed in the infirmary with a sugary smile on his face as he watched her battle whatever it was. Well, maybe that was more like something she would do herself, but it could still happen…

"You have a fever," she noticed, putting a hand to his head. "Did Fonda say when you'd be out of here?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "You know, I think I can go home. I mean, it's not like what I have is all that worse than a c…"

He sneezed again, jolting forward barely missing her hand, which she had rested on his arm for a moment. She put on a play disgusted face and stood up to get a tissue for him, pretending be annoyed that he had sneezed on her, which he didn't. He snatched the tissue from her with a curt thank you and dried his nose.

"Were you about to tell me why you shouldn't be here?"

He glared. "Yes, in fact I was. It's not like you've never sneezed in public is… ACHOO!… it?"

"I've never been as bad as you, and it's the fever that's making Fonda keep you here, not the sneezing, Zanie. You know that, but don't worry…" She patted him on the shoulder. "I won't abandon you this time and leave you with a boring book."

"Oh, that's so… ACHOO!… reassuring…"

"Now, now! Could you not speak about being here as though it were a prison sentence? I'm only looking out for you!"

Alicia jumped at the voice behind her. She hadn't even heard the door open or the woman come in. Zane, who had apparently seen her, raised his eyebrows as a way of mocking her for being so jumpy. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Alicia, it's quite early. How long have you been here?"

"Around half an hour, Ms. Fontaine," she answered politely, glancing once at the clock.

"So you came early, did you? Well, I hadn't intended for him to be up so early." She smiled. "I don't mean to kick you out, but I'm afraid he should get more rest. He does have a fever, after all. You don't mind terribly, do you?"

"Of course not, Ms. Fontaine."

She answered that, even though three-fourths of her wanted to tell the woman how she wanted to stay with Zane no matter what. Still, being apart from him would give her time to think about love and how she felt about him. If there was someone she knew she could ask, then she would, but no one came to mind. Nodding, she exited the infirmary and headed down the hall, actually trying to not think about Zane. It was troubling her; him being in the infirmary, how she felt about him, everything felt like it was all swirling about and mixing itself up for the sole purpose of making things difficult for her. It was trying to confuse her to the point of aggravation, and to her chagrin, it was working.

The golden sun beat down on her from overhead and it was hard to believe that there had actually been a storm the night before. A warm breeze brushed past her, blowing dark, nut-brown hair back over her shoulders. Birds chirped in the distance, and some flew overhead, gracing the world with the light sound of beating wings. Because of the peaceful surroundings, Alicia looked up for a change as she walked briskly along the path down towards the Slifer dorms, planning to head to the beach to watch the tides and scout for shells. As for her looking up, most people would consider that a good thing, but it was not when there was someone walking towards her who was not only oblivious to the fact that she was there, but not exactly tall enough for her to see from where she looked. As fate set it up to happen, the two collided.

"Oh, I'm sorry Syrus!" she exclaimed, bending down to help him find his glasses, which had been knocked off due to the collision. "I didn't see you…"

"What? Down here?" He smiled. "Don't worry, I get that a lot. So anyway, I was just on my way to see Zane. I heard he's in the infirmary again."

She nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, that's right. He was out in the storm last night and caught something. Next time I see him, I'll have to see if he still has his brains or if he sneezed them out."

Syrus laughed a little. "That bad? He doesn't get like that a lot, but he did once when we were kids. Atticus and Alexis were at our house that day because my mom was watching them for a while so their mom and dad could go visit their dad's mom, who was sick in the hospital. Zane did NOT like being sick. Mom told him he had to stay in bed all day and when we all came in to see how he was, he gave us a sleepy glare before he sneezed again. Atticus and Alexis almost laughed because Zane had a really high-pitched sneeze. He wasn't happy about that."

"He still sounds like that." She paused for a moment. "Well, Fonda said he needed rest, so I don't think you can see him now, but do wanna come with me? I think I need to talk to you."

The short Slifer seemed confused at first, but he shrugged and agreed, following her to the beach. When they got there, she sat down in the sand and sighed, wondering where to begin. As Zane's brother, she figured that he might be able to help her unravel her feelings about his sibling, and she hoped he could help because he was her only idea.

"I love him, Sy," she spilled.

He blinked. "You do? Like how?"

"That's the problem. I mean, I know Zane loves…" She silenced herself before she accidentally told Syrus of his brother's feelings, replacing it with another word. "…someone else, and I'm fine with that. In fact, I really don't care at all that he's in love, so doesn't that rule out me being in love?"

"Um, I'm not good with this kind of thing, but I'd think so. Maybe you've got like a best friend thing going on? I mean, you can love your friends, right?"

"I don't think it's that," she admitted with a shake of her head. "Because I feel like it's a lot stronger than that. Oh, I'm contradicting myself, aren't I? I'm not making any sense."

"No, not really, no offense." He thought for a moment. "Maybe it's a brother thing? I mean, I know I love Jaden like a brother, so maybe it's the same for you and Zane."

The brunette considered the idea for a moment. That would make sense, and that would also explain why she had that dream about Aaron when Zane was taken to the infirmary. Well, it was the best idea she'd heard all day, so she decided to go with it. Teasingly, she smiled.

"Oh, how great! You just always wanted a sister, right Sy?"

"Well I kinda had one…"

"Hm?"

He blushed, scolding himself for making a comment that referred to Zane's appearance. "Nothing! Yeah, I guess it'd be cool. I mean, Atticus was one lucky guy. He could be around Alexis all the time…"

"Syrus! You can't fall for your sister!"

The Slifer sighed. "I know… But still!"

After being in the infirmary all morning and having no visitors other than the one time Alicia showed up early, Zane was bored, even more so than he had the day his only entertainment was that boring book. Now his only entertainment was watching the hand on the clock spin around as it counted off minutes, and that wasn't even meant to be called entertainment. When he heard the door open, he sat up, interested to see who it was. Even if it had nothing to do with him, watching would give him something to do. When it turned out to be Alexis, he wanted to give a prayer of thanks, but that was cut short by a sneeze. Damn cold…

"Zane, you feeling better?" she asked, taking a seat in the bedside chair.

"Not much, but not bad enough that I need to stay here. I just got out yesterday!"

"Well, then don't go out in storms. That's really common sense, but I guess you're hardly to blame after what did happen." She caught the troubled look in his eyes. "What?"

"Alicia was here."

Alexis was puzzled. "Is that a bad thing?"

"She told me she loved me."

Alexis sat in silence for a moment, contemplating on how Zane wanted her to react. Was what she told him a good thing? Or did he say it because he didn't like it at all? She couldn't decide, and so after a few moments, she decided to go with just asking without a real opinion.

"She did? Is that bad?"

He sighed. "Well, no, but I guess I just wasn't expecting it, you know? I mean, we've had our moments in the past where someone might have to pull us apart before we kill each other, so I guess I didn't think it'd be possible after that." He stopped. "And she knows I don't think of her that way, because she knows who I have feelings for."

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

Zane shook his head. "I don't really want to tell anyone, nothing personal, okay?"

"I understand. But hey, if she feels that way even with the knowledge that you love another, isn't that a good thing? I mean, wouldn't that show that she's dedicated?"

"Maybe, but I don't think of her that way, so that defeats the purpose, doesn't it?"

"Well…"

"Oh Zane, you have so many visitors today!"

The cerulean-haired Obelisk wanted desperately to roll his eyes when Fonda spoke, but he didn't and also kept his mouth shut. But seriously, couldn't she get that he didn't need to be left alone all day? It seemed like it should be crystal clear, but apparently it wasn't, at least for her.

"Alexis, please come back tomorrow," the nurse said. "I have to retake his temperature anyway, and I think rest would do him good."

Alexis, who listened better than Alicia, nodded respectfully and said a quick goodbye to Zane before she walked out of the infirmary. With nothing better to do at the moment, she let her mind think about what Zane had told her about Alicia. It had come as a shock to her as well, as the "moments" those two had in the past were certainly as described. Still, Alicia did often worry about him, so the blonde just shrugged and let it be what it seemed.

She spent the rest of the day in various places around campus, such as the library to study up on strategies and in Crowler's room to ask him about any extra credit options that could make up for her grade on the exam. A few Slifers in the room stared at her as they overheard the conversation, no doubt thinking that she was crazy for thinking a ninety-three was a low grade. She ignored them because whereas a ninety-three would have been an outstanding grade for them to receive on the exam, it still felt too low for what she usually achieved and she wanted to see if she could make it go away. Unfortunately, there weren't any real options.

"I'm sorry, Alexis, but the makeup exams are only for those who scored an eighty-nine of below. A ninety-three is certainly passing by much and I'm afraid I don't have anything for you," Crowler explained, organizing a stack of papers on his desk. "There's nothing for my class, but Professor Banner is offering such a thing, I believe. Maybe you could ask him."

She thanked him and did so. Alchemy wasn't her best subject, but she knew she could do well enough to at least have at least one point put towards her exam grade. Banner instructed her to follow a simple formula, at least, one that was simple to her. Hers ended with being clear as it should be, but a glance over at another Slifer whose had turned the color of pea soup proved that not everyone understood with such clarity. She showed the man her work and he graded her, helped her clean up, and then said goodbye as she left.

After being in the school for hours, Alexis figured it was time to go home and hurried to do so. It was dark outside, and since the night before, she didn't want to be caught alone outside. After all, with what happened to Zane, and how her brother vanished one day, who knew what was going on around the island when night fell? One thing was for sure; she didn't want to be the one to find out.

While walking on the barely visible path, she spotted Harrington up ahead. As much as it killed her to admit it, the third year was actually right for a change, since he had been the one to tell her that he thought Alicia loved Zane. She didn't like him very much, that due to the many times he would continue to ask her on dates, but she felt that he deserved to know that he was right. So, she took a deep breath internally and caught up to him.

"Hey Alexis!" He said with what he considered his "charming smile." "Glad to see you! Hey, it's Sunday tomorrow, so why don't we…"

"Can't you take a hint? No, can't you take a straight denial? Harrington, I do not want to go on a date with you."

"We could just call it an outing! You know, like friends!"

"Forget it. Listen, I only came to tell you that you were right about Alicia."

He looked confused. "Huh? About what?"

She sighed in disbelief at his lack of memory. "She loves Zane."

With that, the light went on. "OH! I was? Well, of course I was! I mean, it's plain as day, isn't it?"

"Maybe to you, but not to me and not to him."

"Unrequited is it? Hey, I know someone who knows what that feels like. Horrible feeling, isn't it?"

She groaned and quickened her pace. "Get a life, Harrington!"

He stared after her. "But what about the duel between me and Jaden?"

"So what? You lost anyway!"

"Yeah but… Alexis! Wait!"

* * *

Me: Ugh, I HATE how this came out.

Zane: (Not talking)

Me: No flames please, even though this one kinda calls for them…


	16. Chapter 16

Me: Hi! Guess what?! I'm running out of ideas!

Zane+Pretends to care and gasps+

Me: So, any ideas y'all have, I'll will listen intently!

* * *

Upcoming Events

When light filtered through the windows of the various dorms, students weren't around to witness it, already either in the school itself or in the process of walking there. Actually, there were some students who were around to see the light in their rooms, and that was because they just happened to be running late, as usual. In fact, running late was an understatement. They were going to be hopelessly late, possibly showing up in their first class ten minutes before it was over, and that could be conceived because one of the three students wasn't even awake yet.

"Jaden! Today's Monday and we have class! You have to wake up!"

The boy who was attempting to wake his friend would've felt ready to kick the brunette awake in order to make slightly better time, but as said, he WOULD'VE felt ready to. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the sleeping teen, the other couldn't do it. Whether it was because he was too meek or non-violent, he couldn't do it and that was that. Instead, the short, blue-haired teen settled for shaking his roommate by the shoulders and shouting even louder than before.

"Jaden! Let's go! Even Chumley's ready and waiting!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing!"

After a few more minutes of unsuccessful waking attempts, Syrus sighed and gave up for the time being. He tried to block out the fact that they were late because Jaden was apparently sleep-deprived, but hearing the oddly loud snores from the bottom bunk didn't help him refocus his thoughts. With a groan of defeat, he sank to the floor.

"Sy, I know we don't usually, but maybe we should just go without him today," the large Slifer suggested. "I mean, Crowler won't let us off so easily if we show up right when the bell rings and class is over."

"But he won't like it if we show up with ten minutes left either," he pointed out. "And besides, Jaden's always there for us, so doesn't it seem a little unfair that we'd just leave him to wander into class at whatever hour and get scolded by himself."

"No." Seeing the look on the younger Slifer's face, Chumley continued. "How's it unfair? I mean, he's the one who stayed up too late and we've been trying to wake him up for fifteen minutes now. I mean, it's all ready twenty minutes past eight."

That seemed to be all the convincing Syrus needed. He leapt up from the floor, eyes wide and ran to the door at top speeds, forcing his feet into his shoes.

"Eight twenty? We're so late! We'll have detention for sure!"

"Yeah, I've noticed, but that's not so unusual, is it?"

"Sorry Jay, gotta go now! Bye, bye!"

Chumley had to admit it; he did feel a little bad leaving Jaden all alone in the Slifer dorms to wake up and realize that he'd set a new record when it came to oversleeping, but that wasn't technically his problem. They TRIED to wake him up, and Jaden REFUSED to listen, so they couldn't possibly be held responsible. Looking ahead, he blinked when his brain registered the long distance between Syrus and he and so, he tried to actually run to catch up, something he wasn't good at.

"Sy! Slow down!"

"Sorry, but we have class! I really can't wait, Chumley, because the last thing I need is another detention that my mom will find out about! Plus, I was planning to go see Zane!"

"Your brother? Sy, he was only in the infirmary for a cold, so don't you think he'll be out by now?"

"It could've been worse than a cold! What if he's on his deathbed and I can't see him?"

"Syrus! Don't even say you're not overreacting!"

When they reached the school, or rather, when Syrus reached the school, he decided to slow down a little and wait for Chumley to catch up, because he would much rather have someone with him when he entered Dr. Crowler's room after missing at least three fourths of the class. Crowler never did have a reputation for being understanding or lenient of tardiness, and the strictness of his punishment always amplified when it came to Slifers. As unfair as it was, the Slifer knew he would be getting something as a result.

The two students stood outside the room a moment before entering, primarily to gather their courage and face the teacher. Over the many times they'd gotten into trouble with him, they had gathered that Crowler liked to make a class spectacle of them when they did something wrong, and that usually involved shouting their crime and punishment out loud.

"Well," Syrus whispered. "Here goes nothing…"

When they stepped into the classroom, it seemed like the Earth stood still. All eyes rested on them and the room was silent. Syrus always did hate uneasy silences, but lucky for him, or unlucky, depending on how it was viewed, the silence was broken by a sharp yell from the front of the room.

"Oh, Syrus and Chumley, you've decided to come to class after all?" he questioned mockingly, resulting in snickers from the Obelisks in the room, save a few. "But what's this? It seems your little friend Jaden isn't with you today. Well, when you do see him, please inform him of how all three of you have detention with me tonight!"

They walked to take their seats, wishing those seats weren't so close to the front of the room. Because they were, the stares and whispering voices of the many other students got to them as they walked by, no matter how hard they tried to block them out. One voice stood out among the rest, a voice not hard to identify as Chazz's. It wasn't surprising that he was the rudest of them all, and he'd be mocking them even if the rest of the class kept their mouths shut.

After the remaining fifteen minutes ticked away and the bell rung, Syrus headed over to Crowler's desk with his eyes downcast, but he still headed over nonetheless. He said nothing at first, but finally, he gathered himself and decided to talk, still not looking up.

"D-Dr. Crowler?" he asked quietly.

"What is it?"

He winced a little at the clipped, impatient tone. "I was wondering if I could have detention tomorrow instead. I want…"

"And why should I allow that? Please, do tell."

"Well, Zane's in the infirmary and I didn't get to see him yesterday so I thought I'd go today and…" He was losing confidence fast. "If you want me to come to detention after that then I can so…"

Crowler had looked up from his papers, blinking. "Zane? My star pupil is in the infirmary? Why haven't I heard about this?"

"Because he got out this morning. I walked to class with him, actually. He's perfectly fine."

Syrus nearly jumped three feet in the air when he heard the girl's voice suddenly appear behind him, as he had no knowledge of her approaching, or staying long enough to hear what the conversation was about. He turned around and stared at her, but she didn't give any indication of being fazed by that. In fact she just shrugged and said a quick apology to Crowler for not informing him and pulled Syrus out of the room with her.

"Alicia! Don't sneak up on me like that!" he said excitedly on their was to alchemy class. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Well, if you told Crowler that Zane was still in their and he found out that he really wasn't, you'd be in for it, and you know he wouldn't buy it if you told him that you didn't hear about him leaving the infirmary."

"But it'd be the truth!"

"But Crowler wouldn't buy it because you're a Slifer."

He sighed. She was right; Crowler did have something against the red dorm and he would hold that against the teen if he'd tried to explain himself, which is actually why he ended up with so many detentions. Still, at least he could see Zane out and about again, and he sincerely hoped that the third year wouldn't find another way to get himself put in the infirmary again. With how many times it had happened in the time they'd been in school, it seemed like Zane was an accident waiting to happen. Not all the time, though, which was a relief.

Because the Obelisk girl pulled him through the halls at speeds he didn't think could be achieved when dragging someone, they showed up for alchemy class before the bell rang, and so Syrus didn't get himself in more trouble, this time with Professor Banner. It would've been something to celebrate; not getting into trouble, but the fact that it was alchemy took all the joy out of it. Even if he was there for the entire class, Banner still made no sense at all, and the student had a feeling that that feeling of being completely clueless was quite common in that class, and even the Obelisks experienced it. He did his best to pa y attention, but he knew that would be over when the people in the room stopped talking. That could only mean one thing: someone else had arrived late.

"Ah, Jaden, so glad you could make it! We are discussing topics very important for the upcoming test this Friday!"

"Yeah, glad I could come too then!" he said in his typical, good-natured tone, his grin intact. However, the second he sat down, he leaned over to Syrus and whispered quickly. "Why didn't you guys get me up?"

"We tried, but you were out cold!" he whispered back, keeping a watchful eye on Banner to make sure he wouldn't see them talking. "We tried for fifteen minutes and you still wouldn't even crack an eye open, so we left. I did apologize to you before that, though!"

"Uh, thanks Sy, but I didn't hear you at all…"

"Yeah, I noticed…"

When class was finished, they walked out into the hallway, and that was when Jaden decided to begin firing questions at his roommates about why they failed to wake him up. All of his questions related to, "What did you try?" and so they all got basically the same answer of, "Everything!" When the brunette eventually realized that he could get no more out of them, and when he heard how they each had detention with Crowler, he sighed and leaded back against the wall.

"Oh well, guess you can't win them all…"

"More like you can't win any of them, slacker."

Syrus tried to glare. "Beat it, Chazz!"

The raven-haired Obelisk sneered, tossing his head a little as part of his usual, snobby display. "Don't think I will just yet. Hey, you'd better hope you don't get any detention this Friday!"

Jaden blinked. "Why? What's Friday, other than Banner's test?"

"You mean you don't know? Well, I can't expect any more from a Slifer. The school's hosting a dance, stupid, and all students are invited, though I don't know why they chose to invite nobodies like you."

The short Slifer didn't really ignore the comment; rather he didn't even hear it. "A dance? Like, with girls and all?" he asked eagerly, his huge, silver eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, dork, but it's not like any girl would-"

He cut off sharply when a closed hand came down on his head forcefully. "The Chazz" wasn't in serious pain or anything from the hit, but he had to admit that it certainly caught him of guard. Therefore, he felt no shame in yelping when it happened and jumping a little. Grabbing the ends of his blue blazer to keep his hands away from his sore head, where he actually did feel something, he growled at whoever had hit him, not surprised when he saw Alicia.

"You sound like an animal, Chazz," she said plainly, twirling the end of a strand of her brown hair. "And I don't know many girls who date those." When she turned to Jaden and his friends, it seemed like a complete change of heart, as she was smiling. "Yes, Sy, there are girls at the dance. Is this your first?"

"Well, junior high had them, but I never went…"

"Same here! But, I've heard about these things from other students here, and they're pretty popular. I guess I can imagine the basic things that go on, like dancing, obviously, and other things related, but I wonder how nice this place will make it?"

"It's not like you have anyone to go with!" Chazz spat at her, angry about the whole head incident.

"You asking me? Sorry, but I prefer dating someone within my species."

"Then you'll have a lot of trouble here, because most of the students are human."

After watching Alicia and Chazz glare at each other for some time, the three Slifers began to feel a little uneasy. The two seemed like they were ready to start the insulting again in a relatively short amount of time. Though it was a little funny to watch Chazz get insulted to the point where he couldn't think of a response, they had a feeling that they should separate the two before they started up again. To do that, Jaden stepped in between and grinned nervously.

"Okay then… Hey, why don't we go see Zane? Catch you later, Chazz!"

No one bothered to tell Jaden that Syrus' brother was up and going at the time, because they felt perfectly fine about using that as an easy excuse to get away from Chazz. That way, they knew Chazz wouldn't follow them. As much as he couldn't stand Jaden or his friends, the rich Obelisk wouldn't do anything to put himself on Zane's bad side, and for obvious reasons. Because Zane was the top student and duelist in the school, one would typically try to stay in his favor. And so, he muttered a curse under his breath and stalked off in the opposite direction.

"Hey Alexis! Do you have a minute?"

She sighed. "One minute, and one minute only. I have a feeling what you're here about, Harrington."

He smiled. "Well, what do you think?"

"I am not going to the dance with you, nor am I going to consider it."

His entire expression froze on his face, his wide eyes and smiled still intact. How could she? What was wrong with his charm? Was he no good at attracting girls anymore? Sure, she'd said no numerous times, but now it was DIFFERENT. It was the ever-popular school dance! How could she say no?

"But Alexis! It's just one dance! I mean, can't we try to go together and if it doesn't work out we'll never have to date again…"

"Harrington, it's nothing personal, but I'm really not interested in you at all. I'm sorry."

He laughed nervously. "Oh… That's okay then…"

And that was when he made his great getaway, commonly known as sulking away to a corner somewhere. There were other girls in the school, but none of them had really attracted him like the blonde girl did. He knew she was practically idolized by most male students, but still, he had his share of fans, so didn't that mean he had at least a little bit of a chance? Apparently not.

It was later in the day that Zane actually talked to someone since the morning, and even though it was the same girl, he was glad it was her and not another fan girl. They had been swarming him all day, each asking the same question that was, "Will you go to the dance with me?" or something related to that. He'd turned down every request in the nicest way he could manage, but they were really starting to get to him, especially after he noticed that many of the girls who were asking had been denied before and just wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Hey Zanie!" Alicia chirped, catching up to him. "How are you doing on this fine day?"

He sighed. "You know fan girls have been stalking me, don't you? That's why you seem so cheerful, isn't it?"

"Hit the nail on the head, Zane! So, I guess you've said no to all of them?"

"You're good at guessing games," he said tiredly. "They won't leave me be. How am I supposed to get rid of them? They'll surround me at the dance too…" He sighed. "You know there's someone I wouldn't mind asking me, but he's not here right now, so I guess I'm doomed to be bothered by these people. I mean, I could just ask Alexis or someone to go just so they'd know I'm not interested, but they'd probably cast aside whoever it is and keep asking anyway."

The brunette listened intently, but when the third year voiced the possibility of the pretend date, she grinned evilly. "Hey Zanie, I could go with you. Don't worry, I'll protect you from those crazy girls!"

"So you'd go…as my bodyguard?" She nodded. "Well, I don't know, but I guess it couldn't hurt. You do have a reputation for being a little tough in this place, so okay. We'll see about it."

"That's thinking, Zane!" she said, clapping him on the back rather suddenly to purposely annoy him. "Now, you DO know how to dance, right? Because if you're gonna make a fool out of me…"

He blinked. "Wait, I didn't say anything about dancing…"

"Well of course! Or else we'd never pass as a date!"

"But I don't want to put my arms around YOU."

"Hey, you think I want to hold you? We need to, Zane, or else the fan girls will attack you."

"Actually, you held me in the infirmary, but you do have a point. They wouldn't be convinced…"

"There you go, Zane! You little thinker, you!" she said in a strange, semi-motherly voice, nudging him in the arm. With that, she sped up and waved to him. "Bye now!"

When she was out of earshot, the elder Obelisk sighed and fought the urge to put his head in his hands while he thought over what he had just agreed to. Realizing that he didn't have the mental strength to not do anything as a reaction when the truth hit him, he shook his head without his hands and kept on walking. The cerulean-haired teen sighed more times than he could count, a bored look on his face that proved that he would willingly wait for Friday to come and wasn't truly eager at all.

"I hate her…"

Deep down, he knew for a fact that he didn't mean it, but until Friday was over with, he would let himself think that.

* * *

Me: Grr… Can't hate this chapter any more than I do!

Fedelta: Yeah, it's bad. SOOOOO boring + stupid.

Me: Well, I have supreme writer's block, so anyone with ideas that I could use for a chapter or two or so, please tell me so I can use them after I write the whole dance thing. I want to have some more chapters in here before I start the whole Shadow Rider Arc…

P.S: And please, no flames! I know I have writer's block and this chappie isn't good, but, bear with me please:)


	17. Chapter 17

Me: Could it be? An update? Why, it is! I'm sorry, everyone! I've been busy with schoolwork and when I wasn't, I had writer's block! Forgive me?

I've read through this and edited the mistakes I found, but if I missed some, feel free to let me know! Thank you all!

And thirdly, I'm sorry if this isn't a good chapter! I haven't written this in so long, and now, since my writing style suddenly got longer, it's like twice the length of some other ones, and I might babble a little in here... Sorry!

* * *

The next morning was when the fact that she was now going to the upcoming dance with Zane truly sank into Alicia's mind. Why had she agreed again? Oh wait, she didn't. Why did she have to think of asking him to go with her in the first place? It's not like she saw them together as a couple, and if they went, that would spread around the school before they could even try to deny anything. 

"Oh, now I remember…" she sighed to herself. "It's because of my pure, selfless desire to help Zane and protect him from those oh so dedicated fan girls. I'm such a nice person…"

Even though she remembered her reasons quite clearly, she still groaned and dressed slowly that morning, able to wait for Friday to come. She'd never be in a big hurry to go to any huge social event, that due to her practically isolated life after her mother died, and a school dance was placed under the category of "huge social event." At least she knew people who were going…

It wasn't cold when she walked outside, but it certainly wasn't warm either. The wind came from behind her as she turned to walk down the path to the school and blew her hair around her face, also bringing a chill with it that stung a little when it hit her skin. She mentally smiled, thinking about other girls in the school with their complicated hairstyles and then walking in the wind. No doubt they'd be late to their first class after spending an eternity in the bathroom fixing their hair.

"I wonder how Zane's doing with it?" she said aloud, noticing how there was no one within earshot. "That is, if he hasn't been blown over by this windy weather…"

She did spot Zane when she reached the school, but much to her dismay, he didn't look as if the wind had given him any trouble at all. His hair was perfectly combed into place, not a strand sticking up anywhere that she could see, and his uniform wasn't ruffled at all. In fact, he seemed as if he'd walked through a perfectly still morning, but since that wasn't the case, it had to be something else. Luckily for her, she'd have time to ask, because he caught her staring at him and came over.

"I can't imagine what I've done to interest you now, because I am quite sure I have only been leaning against a wall, but go ahead and tell me what's so fascinating."

"Don't flatter yourself," she said a little sharply. "I'm not fascinated with anything right now, just curious. How is it that everyone who has walked in this morning runs to the bathroom mirror to fix up and you come here looking like wind doesn't bother you at all?"

"Because the wind only picked up at about six this morning. I was here before that because I have an exam today and so, I went to the library early to study a little. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, so basically, you were here being an obsessed study freak when you know for a fact that you have this stuff memorized by heart. Come on, Zane, why couldn't you walk in the windy weather? I would've LOVED to see you get blown over…"

He ignored her comment with a roll of his eyes and looked up at the clock on the wall. Class would be starting somewhat soon, and so, he decided it would be a great time to leave the brunette behind him and be away from her for at least an hour or two, so he turned his back to her and began to walk briskly away. Sadly, because class would only be starting somewhat soon, she had the time to follow him for a little.

"So Zane, where are we going? Don't tell me you're trying to ditch me already. Are you gonna do this at the dance too? I am your bodyguard, so being near you is my responsibility…"

"Don't bring that up. Right now, I have no idea what possessed me to make me agree with this. This whole bodyguard thing is ridiculous, you know. They're only fan girls, Alicia, and I think I can deal with them myself. So if you don't mind…"

She grinned. "You're not getting out of this one, lovey. Besides, you, the living stick figure, are telling me that you can handle an entire mob of obsessed girls by yourself? Sure, maybe you can get away by slipping through spaces that a normal human shouldn't be able to get through, but you can't do that forever. If you do, you won't be able to enjoy the dance!"

"I won't enjoy it if I have you following me everywhere." He paused. "And don't call me that! I told you that 'Zanie' was all right, even though I will admit that it makes my stomach do flips, so you have no right to call me anything but that or my name!"

"But Zanie, it's so hard to avoid…"

When he heard a bell ring throughout the school, Zane could've prayed in thanks to Heaven as he quickly left the hall to go to class before the bell rang again. He knew she would do the same thing, especially since the classroom she was heading to wasn't exactly close, and he smiled mentally, knowing that he'd be away from her for a couple of hours. It wasn't too long, but at least it was still a decent amount of time.

Alicia had done as Zane suspected and left the second she heard the bell, darting to Dr. Crowler's room in a hurry, determined to be sitting in her seat and not panting from the run at all by the time the second bell rang, which meant that she would have to make no stops at all along the way. She was skinny, but that didn't mean she was the best runner in the world. Playing tennis against yourself by hitting a ball against a wall wasn't exactly a way to build up stamina while running…

Surprisingly enough, she accomplished her goal, but what truly mystified her was the fact that Syrus, Jaden, and Chumley were already sitting in their seats. They had actually made it on time for once? Maybe it was just a lucky day for everyone. She made a mental note to remember the date just in case she'd ever need a day to plan something important to take place on…

"Good morning, class!" Crowler called after the bell rang again. "I see Mr. Yuki is… Mr. Yuki!"

Alicia giggled as Jaden looked at the man, confused as to why he had just shouted his name suddenly when he hadn't done anything. Heck, he wasn't even asleep yet! Dr. Crowler had apparently made it a habit of marking Jaden as late, a habit that wasn't too bad up until that particular "lucky day."

"Yes sir?" Jaden answered, hoping to get some kind of explanation. Instead, Crowler just glared, embarrassed about his mistake.

"Well, I see you're here. For once, anyway. Learn to make a habit of this, Mr. Yuki, being on time, that is."

"Will do, teach!"

The brunette could've sworn she saw a vein, or three, pop in the blonde professor's head as Jaden answered him just as clueless as he had been when he asked him the first question. She had to admit; it wasn't impossible for Jaden to get on your nerves, and his idiocy, while amusing at first, got old after a while, and after being around for a decent amount of time, that time was approaching rapidly. In fact, she felt that it was nearly, if not already, then.

Crowler's class was nothing special, and once again, his words began to slur together in her ears while she began to accidently zone out of the lecture. Yes, she knew she shouldn't make that a habit of hers, because she knew she'd rather go to Hell than end up failing every exam of hers by falling asleep on her desk like Jaden seemed so fond of doing. At first, Crowler looked like he'd crack a whip over the Slifer's head when he saw that, but he seemed to be content with snapping now, or even ignoring, because apparently, it took some time for him to grasp that he was wasting class time by reprimanding the boy the moment he witnessed the offense, because he seemed to also finally learn that nothing he ever said or did would make Jaden pay attention.

Determined to snap herself out of the daze she was quickly entering, she gave herself a kick in the ankle and desperately tried to find something in Crowler's speech that was interesting enough to keep her awake and attentive, or at least, more so than she was. Much to her dismay, there was nothing. He was simply droning on in that irritating voice of his while he talked about something that she couldn't even understand, but she felt he was making it seem harder than it really was, and she waited for him to assign pages in the book to read on the subject.

Though as she watched him, she smiled to herself when she found something that she could focus on. For the first time, she noted that when he spoke, the corners of his mouth had a tendency to twitch upward, or downward, depending on what sort of point he was trying to make. And it wasn't just a little spasm, no. He looked like he would be either smiling like a maniac or frowning to the point that the ends of his mouth would touch his jaw if he weren't speaking.

While locked onto the oddity, she was able to remain awake for the entire class, but that didn't mean that when the bell rang, she didn't breathe a sigh of relief and nearly jump up from her seat. She felt as though she would run over every other student in the process of leaving to get out of the room as fast as she could, for a part of her mind jokingly told her that if she stayed around Crowler too long, some of that boringness would inflict upon her.

She wasn't in much of a hurry to head to her next class, for they were given ten minutes to reach their next destination. Why, she didn't know, because though Duel Academy most certainly did have size to it, it wasn't that it was a huge college campus or something of the sort. For Heaven's sake; it was a one-building high school! Still, why was she complaining? It meant more time to herself!

She heard what sounded like two people chatting behind her and turned to see what it was about, having nothing better to do with her time than be nosy at the moment, and turned to see that instead of chatting, it was Jaden asking Syrus what Dr. Crowler had said during the class, and Syrus was insisting that he shouldn't explain it to him because he thought the brunette shouldn't fall asleep at all. Jaden didn't understand the point of Syrus' feelings on the subject, so he only kept asking questions that all meant one thing, "Why?" over and over again. The short Slifer looked ready to give up the argument, clearly tired of pushing a point that wasn't even understood, and so, she decided to step in a little.

"But Syrus, I don't get it; why shouldn't I fall asleep? I mean, I can always get notes from someone else, like you or Chumley! So what's the benefit of this?"

"Jay, I mean that…well…" It was obvious that Syrus had much trouble saying "no" to his best friend, which was only to be expected. "Well, you fail all your classes with my notes, so wouldn't you want to try and take some of your own? Then maybe you'd do better…"

She almost laughed at the reply. That had been a desperate answer if she'd ever heard one, for more than one reason. One, she _highly_ doubted that any notes Jaden took himself would be better than anything Syrus took, even if all Syrus decided to do was write abbreviations for every word, and then forget what the letters that were written meant. However, the second and probably most important reason was…

"But Sy, why would I want to change? I mean, it's not like I want to leave the Slifer dorms or anything!"

Oh yes, that had been it. It saddened her a little to know that the blue-haired teen hadn't been sharp enough to know that that answer would be coming as a response to that question. She knew he was just grasping at straws to come up with an excuse to get his friend out of the habit of copying his notes, as insufficient as they were, but truly, only one who was even more naïve than Jaden would forget such an obvious thing! Did the fact that Jaden turned down an offer to move to Ra Yellow distance itself from his memory for a time? In any case, she walked closer, not noticed by them at all.

"Well, I mean… You wouldn't, but… I just…"

"Please, Sy, save at least _some_ of your dignity and stop right there," she said casually, causing him to jump as her voice was suddenly present right next to him. "And Jaden, he's only saying that copying instead of doing the work yourself is a bad habit that you should break. You probably won't get too far if that's the only thing you know how to do. I know he's boring, but here, try focusing on the way his mouth moves when he talks to keep yourself somewhat amused."

He blinked and looked from her to Syrus. "Well Sy, why didn't you just say so? I don't get all of it, but it makes more sense than what you were saying to me… Or were you saying the same thing? I can't remember…"

Alicia felt ready to knock Jaden's head against something hard at his horrendous memory, maybe Syrus' head… But she withheld from that, telling herself that not only would she be in some serious shit if she was caught, but it would also serve no purpose. If Jaden's mind already looked like a peanut-sized piece of dented Swiss cheese, adding another dent to it wouldn't help it any, and it'd be more likely to make it even worse… And she didn't know how he could possibly _be_ any worse…

When she glanced up at the clock in the wall, she realized that ten minutes really wasn't as long as she had thought it was, as seven had already passed, and knew she had to get to her next class quickly. Instead of trying to explain their need to hurry to Jaden and Syrus, which would have no doubt taken an eternity because of the brunette's slow interpretation rate, she settled for grabbing one arm from each and dragging them after her in the hall.

She only had to pull them along until they rounded a corner, because by then, they understood what they were doing, so they were able to run on their own. After they began running solo, Jaden shot ahead of the both of them without even trying while Syrus began to fall behind her. Once his mind registered just how far ahead Jaden was, he seemed to slow down even more, which was probably due to discouragement. Normally, Alicia would say something to lift him out of such a feeling, but she was too occupied at the moment, and so, she left that task to Jaden to accomplish while he was busy not paying attention in the next class.

When they arrived, they, or rather, she sat down only a moment before the high-pitched ring of the bell sounded through the school. Yes, only her, for Syrus hadn't made it to the classroom yet, as he eventually entered some half a minute later, and Jaden, though he'd been in the room before her, wouldn't sit down without his best friend, and he had instead chose to watch for the cyan-haired teen in the hall, thus making himself late for class.

Though luckily for the both of them, being late to that particular class wasn't the sort of criminal offense that it was in almost every other class. It was art class, a class she couldn't understand the reasons as to why it was mandatory, and Professor Sartyr had never written anyone up for a detention, or dealt them any punishment, really, for, well…anything…if her memory served her right.

Now, that didn't mean Sartyr didn't care _at all _if you were late to his lessons, but it wasn't because of the school rules; instead it was because of his lack of self-confidence. Whenever someone showed up late for class, he would always assume that they were trying to avoid him for as long as they could, and he would be in his depressive mood for that entire class. And since there were quite a few things that bothered him and ended with that mood as the result, he always seemed depressed, and few students knew him as otherwise.

The assignment, in principle, that Sartyr had prepared for the day wasn't actually that difficult, but that was only in principle. They were to design a card that they felt would work perfectly with the function of their deck. That wasn't too difficult at all, she felt, for she could easily come up with something like that, but it was the second part that made her want to bang her head on the desk in front of her. It was an _art_ class, and therefore, she would be required to _draw_ the image that would appear on the card.

While the other students in the room picked up the pencils set before them, she only glared at hers and felt like dying. Art was her worst subject in school, and it always had been, actually. She had done well in art history, and she understood the mechanics of brush strokes and tones to the point that she could teach it to someone, but her problem was creating it. Because she was someone who excelled in tennis, many assumed that she would have excellent eye-hand coordination, but whenever they said that, she would have to deny it and say that in tennis, it was more of eye-racquet coordination, and so, it aided her none in the art world.

As she tried her best to draw the card that came to mind, she wished the paper, pencil, and all the other tools around her were crushed and molded into a single sphere so she could put her tennis skills to good use in the art world, but since that was unlikely to happen anytime soon, she tried to shrug it off and focus on the mismatched, shaky, uneven, and unintentionally curving lines that were being drawn before her by her hand.

When she was finished, she looked down on her assignment and felt her eye twitch at how poorly-drawn it was. It wasn't even worthy of being considered art, for God's sake! While she put her four Agent cards back in her deck, having used them as references, she was even more aggravated when she looked at them next to the images of them that she'd drawn. She could barely recognize them herself and mentally apologized to them, but that was before she told herself that she had to be going crazy if she was talking to cards. Blocking out the picture, she read over the actually card.

_Sanctuary of Virtuous Endowments – Field Spell_

_This card can only be activated when the following cards are present on the controller's side of the field; The Agent of Wisdom – Mercury, The Agent of Creation – Venus, The Agent of Judgment – Saturn, and The Agent of Force – Mars. As long as this card remains face-up on the field, increase the attack and defense of each of the four cards mentioned by 500 x how many turns this card has been active on the field (Their attack and defense points raise by 500 each turn.) As long as each of the four cards remains on the field, none of them may be targeted by traps, spells, or monster effects, and all battle damage from a battle between a monster and one of them is reduced to 0._

She would have been all right with handing in her work and relying on the card's effect to let her pass the assignment and make up for her lack of artistic talent, but when the professor announced that each student would be sharing the card to the other classmates, the color drained from her face. She was expected to show her…whatever it was worthy of being called, to the entire class? They'd never forget that! Sighing mentally when they started on the other side of the room, she sunk down a little in her seat.

When it finally came to her, she felt a little better than she had before, for she had seen that some of the other artworks were, honestly, even worse than hers, and so, she didn't tremble as she stepped up from her seat and to the projector in the center of the room. No one had done anything when they witnessed the other poorly crafted works, so she wasn't too nervous, but once hers was projected, that feeling quickly changed as a very recognizable voice chuckled none-too-quietly.

As she watched the raven-haired Obelisk, Chazz, struggle to keep from saying something aloud about the drawing, she felt her cheeks grow hot with an embarrassed blush as she read the passage written on the card, all the while struggling to keep her voice steady. Chazz didn't say anything as she read, she thanked God, but she withdrew her praise to the Lord when before she sat down, he couldn't help but say one single phrase aloud, laughing again after he was finished.

"You _do_ know that Mercury is a man, right, Alicia?"

Honestly, she wanted nothing more than to screw morals and throttle the boy right then and there, but because that would probably land her in Juvenile Hall, she resisted the _extremely_ tempting action and settled with sitting down low in her chair and glaring at Chazz through her brown bangs while she mentally let loose a long string of colorful words directed towards him, and even though she knew it'd send her to the chancellor's office, she wished he could hear them.

She went through the rest of the class like that and as soon as she had the time to do so, she hurried to the empty courts in the gym and picked up a racquet and a number of balls to use in her free time. Setting all but one ball on the floor beside her, she threw the one up in the air and slammed her racquet down against it while pretending that it was the rude Obelisk's head, forcing it over the net, yet still in bounds, with such force that it bounced up of the floor and eventually crashed into the back wall.

The brunette picked up another ball and did the same to it, and then another, and another, and before she knew it, there were no little green balls beside her. She sighed to herself as she noted that they were literally all over the gym from her venting session and waited a moment to calm down before going to retrieve them, yet while she took steady breaths, she heard the door open behind her and whipped her head around to see who would be coming into the gym at that time. When she did look, her brown eyes met ocean-blue ones and she blinked once when she saw how they were staring at her.

"What do you want?"

Zane had wandered into the gym when he heard a loud banging of something hitting the floor many times, and now that he did enter, he could only blink at what it was. He didn't know what he was going to find, really, but he hadn't expected to see what he did; Alicia standing on a tennis court, hair askew with a few drops of sweat trickling down her face, and a whole Hell of a lot of tennis balls all over the gym. He noticed how she looked at him, a slight glare in her eyes, and he knew she was pissed about something, and, judging by her tone, she wasn't over it yet.

"I was just walking by and I heard you in here," he said calmly with a shrug, walking towards her. "But I could ask you the same thing, you know. Most of the students are on their lunch break now, and I doubt you always come here during that time to work up a sweat by hitting balls all over the gym."

Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "And I suppose you wouldn't be eating because you're skinny like you are?" She asked the question in a biting tone, but she then realized that her quarrel wasn't with Zane and sighed. "Sorry. Chazz pissed me off, that's all. I'm venting."

He glanced around at the balls around the room. "I can see that… But you know, I don't know if you want to go to class like that now. I don't mean to be offensive, you do know, but I'm sure you're aware that your hair is a mess and you're sweating? Wouldn't you want to straighten out a little before classes?"

For some reason, his comment didn't annoy her as she was sure it would have had anyone else said it. She figured it was because she knew for a fact that when he said he didn't mean to offend her, he was being completely honest, but maybe it was simply because it was Zane, who had become a close friend of hers…

"Yeah, you're right," she agreed, shrugging her shoulders. "I could go take a shower in the locker rooms quickly now." She grinned. "I don't suppose you have a hair dryer with you, pretty boy?"

…Okay, so maybe they weren't like most friends, but still…

"Sorry, I left it in my room where it belongs," he responded.

"Oh well, no biggie. I don't mind going to class with a wet head, really, and if anyone else does, they'll just have to get over it, won't they?" She looked around her. "I suppose I'll have to collect all of these too…"

"Don't worry about it; I'll get them. I've got nothing better to do anyway."

Pretending to be ecstatic about receiving the offer, she smiled a wide grin and put a hand to her head as if she were preparing to do a showy stage faint, which she wouldn't dare do in fear of the hard floor, while she raised her voice to a higher, somewhat breathy tone.

"Oh my, how heroic of you, Zanie! You're so kind to me!"

He rolled his eyes. "Go take your shower or I'll change my mind."

She had turned and gone with one last smirk towards him after his response, but he wasn't as glad that she'd gone as he would have been back when they were true enemies. In fact, even though his tone had been cold, he didn't mean it in that way, and he knew she was aware of that judging by her final smirk, and while he thought more about it, a smile found its way to his lips as he bent down and picked up the first of many tennis balls that littered the floor.

* * *

And now, I will give you all another sincere apology for how late this update is while I explain WHY it was so late! See, my laptop decided to die one day and wouldn't even turn on anymore, and so, we had to get rid of it. We moved the documents to a disc, but they made it read only, so we had to take it back so they could tweak the disk to let us edit the stuff, so I only got that back yesterday! 

So once again, I'm terribly sorry for the long wait and I hope to assure you that the future chapters will not include a wait this long! Thank you all for your patience, and I really hope you guys will still keep reading after this! Until next time!


	18. Chapter 18

Me: Well, since I lacked any more ideas to use in chapters before the actual dance began to come up, I decided to just get right to it, then. Right now, I don't know how the setup's gonna go, like whether the dance will have a mostly separate chapter to itself. We'll have to see how much my creative muse will write on this…

Okay, so this chapter is going to start off right where the other one left off, pretty much; after Alicia comes out of the shower. Yeah, I know that's not the definition of getting right to it, but don't worry; it won't take very long for people to start talking about the dance. I don't want to wear you guys out too much!

* * *

When Alicia finally did step out of the shower, she wasn't sure that she could call what she'd just done a shower, since she didn't actually wash very much. Since there was no soap or shampoo sitting idly in any of the shower stalls, she had instead turned the water to hot and washed with that. It wasn't nearly as effective as a regular shower would have been, but it was much better than simply going to class in the condition she had been in.

Actually, now that she thought about it, would she have been allowed in class the way she was before? The school had to have some sort of a personal hygiene rule in that giant manual of a rule book that it went by, though it seemed like most of the things pointed out in said book were blatantly ignored by both the students and the staff, and even the chancellor himself.

Then again, they wouldn't be happy if her hair was sopping wet to the point that it dripped on everything, and so, she dried it with the towel she found to the best of her ability, and so when she had finished, it was still wet, but not too much water fell from the edges of her hair. Though after she had accomplished the drying aspect, she looked in a mirror and blinked before laughing aloud a little to herself. Her hair was a mess; it looked like a giant rat's nest, and despite how tempting it was just to see the looks on everyone's faces, she knew she couldn't go out like that.

And so, now taking on a new mission, she looked around the room for a comb. There were no pockets in the girls' uniforms, and so she couldn't have taken one with her, though that didn't mean she would have one even if she _did_ have somewhere to put it. Why should she care? After all, she wouldn't have planned to have taken a shower in the middle of a school day when she hadn't had gym.

Sadly, the room was as devoid of any object meant for the brushing of hair as it had been of washing supplies; there was absolutely nothing in sight. Well, that wasn't true entirely. There was one comb on the floor, but it was missing teeth and the ones it still had were tangled in wet hair, and apparently, someone had meant to throw it in the trash bin and missed. There was no way in Hell she was going to use that; who knew what could be living in it?

With no immediate solution set before her, she thought to herself for a moment, trying to think of some way she could get a comb without being seen by too many people. She could just comb it through with her fingers, she supposed, but that would probably result in two things; one, a very uneven brush which would ask for split ends, and two, a whole hell of a lot of pain and agony. It'd probably end with Zane running in to see if she was alive or not…

"Oh, that's it!" she declared aloud. "I must've forgotten about him picking up in the gym…"

Heading over to the door, she braced herself for a snide comment from him regarding her hair and poked her head out of the door that led into the gym, spotting him not too far away from her, bending over as he picked up another green ball. He had his back to her, and so, he didn't notice that she was watching him, but since she didn't want to leave the locker room yet, she had to get his attention by calling.

"Zane? Hey, I don't have the prettiest view of you from here, so would you turn around? I need to ask you a favor."

He sighed, irritated by the calmly-said comment about his rear and turned to face her. He had prepared to say something in a voice dull enough to match her sarcastic one, but when he did set his eyes on her, he found himself frozen. Well, not frozen, for he had seen much stranger things than a bad hair day, but he had to admit, that might have been the worst bad hair day he'd ever seen. There wasn't a single strand that wasn't knotted tightly with another, and if he hadn't been so emotionally in control, he would have laughed.

"Alicia… Do you need some…help…?"

She put on her best smile and gave a dramatic sigh to play up her need. "Well, I was wondering if you had a comb on you. Actually," she let the smile drop and replaced it with a cheeky grin, "scratch that; I need to borrow your comb, since I _know_ you have one on you."

He raised a thin eyebrow at her surety. "Oh; you seem like you're positive of this. How can you be so sure about that?"

"Well, your hair is always perfect, so it must need some brushing out _sometime_ during the day, so it's only natural that you have a comb. Besides, how could a beauty queen such as yourself _possibly_ live without doing your hair every time you get the chance?" She grinned wider. "You ran into the boys' locker room to redo it just now, didn't you?"

He felt a muscle in his face twitch in annoyance at just how much she seemed to enjoy commenting on his appearance. She wasn't like most girls; that was for sure. His whole collection of fan girls would be asking for his comb too, yes, but only so they could place it high on an altar and worship it, and maybe even sacrifice a lamb or two… He wouldn't put it past them…

But since he was almost positively sure that Alicia had no intention of doing such things with his comb, he didn't really have anything against giving It to her, well, other than the fact that he wasn't completely in love with the idea of having someone else's hair on his comb. He didn't think she had anything to worry about, in fact, he was positive, but you could never be too careful, could you? Maybe you could, though…

"No, I was out here picking up the balls," he told her with a sigh. "But I have a comb on me, so you can use it."

Putting his concern for having another's hair on his comb aside, he sighed and reached into his pocket to pull out what she was asking for. He brushed it off, seeming to try and clear away non-existent hair, before he nodded to her and held it out in his hand. However, what he didn't expect was for her to simply stand there, staring, and not making any motion to take it from him. In fact she placed a look on her face to express that she was absolutely confounded by something. He tilted his head in puzzlement at her.

"Is something wrong?"

When she grinned, he knew that that had been the very question she'd wanted him to ask, because clearly the brunette was plotting to make some cheeky remark to him…again. He really couldn't fathom _what_ she would find to make fun about since it was only a slender, black comb, one that you would find in any store, really, but then again, the third year reminded himself that it was Alicia, and she noticed things that no one would even begin to think about…

"No, not wrong, Zanie," she said cheerily, and sarcastically too. "But really, is that it? Your infamous comb, eh? Well, I was expecting something more from someone like you… Like tortoiseshell or something fine…but really, an everyday one? And I thought you were so material…"

"Take it or leave it," he snapped quickly, feeling a dull pink hue rise to his cheeks. Sadly, any hue at all against the extreme paleness looked as if he were blushing heavily, and so, she snickered at his embarrassment, probably thinking it was a worse case than it was. Though even through her small laughter, she managed to surprise him by shooting her hand towards his and snatching the comb from him, just in case he decided to hold to his last statement.

She turned on her heel after that and moved to walk briskly to the locker room again, because she couldn't deny that they only had a limited amount of time to report to their next class, or face the consequences of being late. She had alchemy, so it wouldn't be the end of the world as all knew it if she was a couple minutes late, not that she would want that sort of mark on her record, but for Zane, even though she didn't know what class he had, it would be a tragic event. For him, the school's top student, to show up late was a slap in the face to the chancellor; an embarrassment to not only Zane, but the school as well.

And because of this, she brushed her hair in a hurry, though she knew she had to take some sort of care or she would rip the brown locks out of her head, the thing she'd been avoiding by asking for the comb in the first place. Because she was in a hurry, she had to admit that she didn't care if there was any hair on Zane's comb after she had finished, because if there were, she was going to make him deal with it himself anyway. Well, he decided to be nice and let her borrow it, so he only had to face the consequences of that. If he had a phobia against hair, then he should have thought about that _before_he lent it to her.

Alicia was somewhat surprised however, that despite how it would appear, she only needed to rake the comb through her hair for the first few moments, because after that, there were little to no knots left. She concluded that the wash must've only affected the top layer of hair, since that was the part that could be seen, and she was glad it took her less time because of that, but she had to admit, she would've given anything to watch Zane's reaction when she asked him if he'd lend her a hand. In fact, she didn't really know what his response would be to that. No, of course, or at least, she thought so, but then again, he might have been so taken by surprise that he would only be able to nod.

She nodded to her reflection once before exiting the white locker room and reentering the gym, spotting the other Obelisk leaning against the wall beside the locker room door. For how many balls she actually did hit in her venting session, he did a pretty good job at cleaning up. The floor was spotless of any green that wasn't built into the tennis courts, and he didn't look like he'd even hurried. Actually, he looked like he'd been leaning there for some time.

"I believe this is yours?" she asked, grinning when she saw him focus on the few strands of brown that stood out against the black comb. She pretended to take said action as a way of expressing confusion and tilted her head to the side, pulling her hand back a little. "Oh really? Not yours? I'm sorry, I guess I'll just take it then…"

"It _was_ mine," he said softly, though not sweetly. "But I guess you can have it after all you've done to it. Common decency would have been to clean it after use, you do know? Well, of course you know that, because you_ obviously _neglected to do such deliberately, but since you're so attached to it, then keep it."

"Oh Zane, this is the best gift you've ever given me!" she said dramatically. "In fact, it's the only gift you've ever given me! Still, I'll treasure it nonetheless for all eternity, and when I get tired of it, which I assure you I will, I'll sell it to a mob of fan girls for profits! But, do you think you could use it one more time? I think it'd reel more in if it still had your hair on it…"

He narrowed his eyes and stood stiffly from the wall. "No, I won't be so kind as to do that…and if you're going to sell it to them, give it back… They'll want it autographed…"

"Fine, but if you're hair phobic, can't you just give me one small strand? Please? Come on, they don't even hurt when you pull them out! It's no worse than tweezing your eyebrows!"

He gave an annoyed groan and pushed past her to begin walking towards the door, and he would have kept going, had he not heard her giggling behind him. When he did, he turned around quickly in frustration. "I do not tweeze my eyebrows!"

"I know that, Zane. What do you think I am, stupid? Well, you probably do, because you're…well…you…but in any case, I could tell! Because even if you've done it a thousand times, you'll still mess up somehow…"

Zane had to admit to himself that if he had to listen to one more snide comment from her, he'd experience the uncanny desire to rip his hair out, and so, he quickened his pace and eventually put some distance between himself and her. Much to his surprise, as he walked quickly through the halls, he didn't hear the tapping of her boot heels behind him after a while. He couldn't believe that she had simply let him go, and so, he couldn't help but look back to check quickly.

And when he did allow his blue eyes to take in the scene behind, what he saw actually fell short of what he would consider a scene. All he could see was the white ceiling, white walls with windows lined up to bring light to the hall, and the blue floor beneath his feet, the one that was polished to the point that he could see himself in it. But what made the area seem empty was just that; that it was empty. He seemed to be the only person in the hallway, which meant that Alicia really _hadn't_ followed him.

Finally alone to have time to himself and no one but himself for once in a fair amount of time, he sighed and stepped over to the wall. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the windowsill; looking out through the clear glass at the peaceful scene below that was an empty schoolyard, save for a few third-year students. One of the many benefits of having completed two full years at the academy as all third years had was that they had free classes during the day, times that they didn't have to be anywhere. They'd completed most of their necessary classes, and so, there were gaps in the schedule that couldn't be filled by a class. Not that there was any sort of complaining party against the fact, except for perhaps the students who weren't lucky enough to have such time to themselves.

Though as he reflected on the situation, he sighed, though not heavily, for he couldn't help but feel that having such free time wasn't really that enjoyable when it was spent by one's lonesome. Now that Atticus was gone, he really got a good, clear look at his true life. After the Rhodes boy, he didn't _have_ any sort of _friends_ in his year at the school, and so, who was there to be with when said boy was gone and his other friends were underclassmen who busied themselves with class, though obviously not by choice for many of them? He was shy when he first arrived at the school…unlike Atticus. It seemed that there was a fan club for the singing idol of a teen since day one of their first year, as Atticus had that magnetic of a personality. That was why he'd clung to him when they were younger; well, after he'd made sure the boy wasn't completely psychotic first. Thinking of the day they met brought an upward twitch to the corner of his mouth and he chuckled lightly, shaking his head ever so slightly back and forth.

_Walking into the school on the first day of second grade with Syrus' hand gripped loosely in his own may not have seemed to faze him in the slightest of ways on the outside, but truthfully, his heart was beating wildly within his chest. __He hadn't originally planned on returning to the school for another year, and in fact, he had told his friends, or rather, not friends but acquaintances, such the year before. Because of this, he wasn't surprised when they all stared at him, eyes huge, as he walked through the door in the same public school uniform he had donned one year ago; the one he was supposedly never to wear again._

_Syrus tugged a little on his hand to express his discomfort at being regarded for so long, and so, Zane merely tightened the grip a little before guiding him away from the mass of students in the first room of the school and leading him to where he knew the younger boy's kindergarten room would be.__ Even as they walked, he could feel the eyes trailing him as he passed people in the hallway; people who knew he was supposed to be long gone, and some people who would no doubt be decently upset by the fact that he still remained in the school._

_He had been accepted into a high-end private school after he scored a truly admiral score on the entrance exam, and his mother and father had been so excited that they informed everyone they knew of it, and so, word spread from parents to children around the school faster that a cold epidemic in a nursery. There were some, a small, select few people, who admitted that they were sad to see him go, but even though he didn't say it to their faces, he didn't feel the same way. He was too…smart for the average school, and he knew he didn't fit in there. Also, the none-too-occasional jealous classmate, both upperclassmen and underclassmen, didn't aid him in feeling wanted either. They were happy to see him go. He knew that well, and if he had even one doubt about that, they made it apparent when they actually said such to him._

_Those words didn't hurt him, for they barely scratched the surface of his built-up shields that protected him from the outer world, but he had to admit, when he was told that his parents had called the school and canceled the transfer, he was bitterly disappointed. There went his one opportunity to be like every other face in the crowd, to fit in just once in his life, and why was it all tossed away in the wind? Because his parents wanted him to be there when his baby brother went to kindergarten._

_And so, once Syrus was settled in with the rest of the children in his class, the assault began. Questions came from anyone and everyone who passed him in the hallway as he tried to move by them, unnoticed with his head kept down so they couldn't see his face. His first thought was that if they couldn't see him, they would give up, but later that day, after hours of constant inquiry as to why he was currently sitting beside them in their class, he realized that that idea was flawed and picked his head up, refusing to hold in down shamefully any longer._

_All the questioners had done roughly the same thing when they approached him; they'd ask, then ask again, and then once more, and after the third, they would wander off to find something more amusing to do than talk to someone who would provide less conversation than a wall. He had almost gone to blocking out their voices completely, for they all bared too much of a resemblance to a broken record, but before he did, __a__ boy approached him._

_He asked the same question, though Zane didn't really know because he was sure that the boy hadn't been in the school the grade before. He didn't vocally reply and seemed to ignore him, but instead of asking again, the brunette maneuvered his line of sight to see the face of the child who seemed to be oblivious to his speech and smiled a wide, bright smile when he finally saw his pale visage._

_"You've got an extra seat here," he said in a light, friendly tone. "And you have no one to sit with. I'll sit with you, because you're the only one in here who isn't sitting with someone and you look lonely over here."_

_"I'm no__t lonely," he responded quickly, and said answer really wasn't entirely untrue. He had his cards with him; why should he be lonely?_

_"I'm Atticus!" the brunette continued, sitting down beside him as if he hadn't heard his last reply. "What's your name?"_

_Zane couldn't help but reply, because inside, he was intrigued by this boy. Why was he so determined? And above all of that, who was he? Now that he'd gotten a good look at him, he knew he could be absolutely sure that the other hadn't been in the school the year before, or any previous year, actually. Curious, he sighed and shrugged._

_"It's Zane."_

_Atticus cocked his head to the side, eying him with confusion. "Zane? That's a boy's name, isn't it? Are you named after someone?"_

_When he registered what Atticus was hinting at, or rather, why he was puzzled by the name, the cerulean-haired child felt heat rise to his cheeks in a dusty pink blush and stared. When that only confused the boy more, he shook his head and looked away, the blush intensifying._

_In a slow, laborious voice that made it apparent how he was straining to say such words calmly, he said, "I'm a boy."_

_Atticus was embarrassed to say the least; he'd just gotten someone's gender wrong, and that wasn't the way to make friends, but he managed to cover it up and slapped his head, laughing at his own idiocy. _

_"Oh, I'm sorry there! I must need my eyes checked!" he then abruptly changed the subject. "Anyway, m__y sis and I just moved here. We don't know anybody here and she's shy, so will you come meet her? She's the sweetest once you know her!"_

_"I…I'm not sure if I…"_

_He __smiled__ a smile that had a very understanding look to it for someone who was only in second grade, but shook his head. "You're shy too, Zane? That's okay, but you should get out there more! You've been here your life, right? Well today you're gonna finally make some friends!"_

_He looked at him, thinking about how meeting the younger girl could go. It was true; even his brother had friends, and he practically lived under a blanket, so why shouldn't he have at least one? After all, he couldn't set the kind of example that his parents wanted him to set for Syrus if he kept only to himself, now could he. The thought of actually talking to someone made him smile and chuckle lightly, and because he had temporarily zoned out in thought, he blushed twice as much when Atticus spoke to him._

_""You should laugh more often; you're cute when you smile."_

"You're cute when you smile…"

Zane mimicked the line aloud and found himself unable to control himself as chuckles came from him. They were soft and barely noticeable at first, but soon, they had grown into a true laughing fit. He didn't really know why it amused him so, or better, why it made him feel so…bright inside. The image of Atticus, his big chocolate eyes shining, saying that when he was only seven and they'd just met was adorable enough to make him smile for hours, and even bring a tear to his eye. Unfortunately, said person wasn't around, and that brought a heavy black cloud over the mood.

"Hey Zane, are you okay or do I need to take you to see Miss Fontaine?"

He inhaled sharply at the sound of an unexpected voice behind him and turned around in a flash, only to come face to face with Harrington. Once he identified who it was, he laughed again to himself and shook his head lightly at the other teen's playful concern. A more serious feeling returning to him, he sighed and turned around to face the window again.

"It's nothing really…" he replied, crystal eyes staring, unfocused, towards the calm, indigo sea, painted with small slivers of white as the wind created waves that slopped against the rocky shore. "Just a memory…"

* * *

Me: I AM SO SORRY THIS CHAPTER IS BORING AND SUCKS!!! I had writer's block, so I needed to get SOMETHING down, and I was trying to get to the dance and then they got all talky and my computer, or my hands that are doing all this typing, took over me and I couldn't stop them! Please, have mercy! The next chapter will be the dance and then this story will move into Arc One!

What's that you say? You say you didn't know this story was going to have Arcs? Well, it is, so PLEASE STAY WITH ME! I PROMISE I DON'T MAKE THEM THIS BORING ON PURPOSE!!!

Thanks y'all for keeping with this! I really do appreciate it! Hugs for you all! What? You don't WANT a hug? FINE THEN! Sue me for trying to be FRIENDLY! LOL!


	19. Chapter 19

Me: Hey everyone! It's me again! (Well, OBVIOUSLY, LOL!) This will be the dance and then after it's over… (FINALLY! I was gonna keel over and DIE if I had to write any more related to it, how 'bout all you readers?

Anyway, at the end of this chapter, there will be a short little preview of the next chapter because the next one is the beginning of Arc 1. It'll be easy to tell what's the story and what's the preview I think, so don't worry about getting it all confuzzled. Remember, I write so I won't get confused, and that means I can't make it too complicated! LOL!

Also, you don't have to read the preview if you don't want to, because it's going to start the next chapter, but I will say… YOU MUST REVIEW!!!!!! THEY FEED THIS POOR SOUL!!!!!! Okay, all that aside, let the chapter to end the boredom (Hopefully) begin!!

* * *

Listening to Banner talk one's ear off with something that couldn't possibly be their native language only resulted in one thing; a glaze being drawn over the eyes of all who were watching him, and even the eyes of the prestigious blonde, Alexis Rhodes. She fought her own eyes to stay focused while the ordered her brain to absorb everything that was being said in the lecture, but in truth, she knew she was going to end up relying on the notes she was taking absently. 

Her hand moved to form the words that were being written in the clean, dark black ink on the paper, but she didn't really know what she was writing at all. She knew she probably couldn't spell three fourths of what the professor was talking about, and so, she would only end up studying the wrong material almost. If she were as bold as Jaden, she too would have asked what the purpose of learning alchemy in Duel Academy was, and that is, why it was a mandatory class. She could understand it if some students wanted to take the course as a sort of elective, but she didn't see its purpose in the school other than that.

Of course, she would never be Jaden, which meant she wouldn't ask such a question of Banner himself, because that would be an insult to his job, since he taught and studied the subject for his only living. She knew an answer from the professor would probably have something to do with how there are spirits inside the cards, or something like that, and with how confused she already was, she most certainly didn't want to be told anything more that didn't abide by the common laws of physics, because if she was told such, she feared her brain would finally short circuit and she would be left with nothing.

She looked down at the notes in front of her and sighed mentally when she saw that they were almost illegible. They looked like scribbles drawn together by thin, curving lines, and they had almost no meaning in the style of script she was accustomed to. It was like a feminine version of chicken scratch, and that was something that wouldn't help her study by herself.

She looked over at the paper in front of Jasmine for a split second, only turning her eyes and leaving her head in place so she wouldn't be noticed, well, hopefully at least. She was hoping to find some sort of notes on the page when she looked, so that she might be able to ask her for some help when the class ended, but to her dismay, Jasmine hadn't even bothered to try and write words and had instead passed the time by dragging her pen aimlessly over her paper. One glance at Mindy's paper, a glance that she never planned to take, proved that the girl was only drawing hearts around someone's name, whose she couldn't tell from that quick look only.

Did Banner offer a sort of remedial class, she wondered? She couldn't remember, and she didn't know if any teacher at the school did outside of detention, because she'd never needed to attend such a class, and therefore had no business knowing if they existed or not. She didn't have anyone she could ask besides the professor, and so, she decided that she would need to pose the question after the bell rang. It wasn't that she didn't have friends that would, or rather, should be interested in a session like that to help their grades, as Jaden's marks certainly left everything to be desired, but it was that those friends who were in need of such didn't care enough to attend.

She kept telling her eyelids to refrain from drooping as the lecture droned on and became a seemingly endless monotone in the back of her mind. She couldn't shake her head to keep attentive, for that wouldn't have gone unnoticed, but she wished she could every time the man's voice, and all other small sounds in the room, began to decrease in volume and gentle darkness began to creep into her field of vision. She kicked herself in the ankle to cause his voice to return to the volume it actually was and refocused, turning back to the notes before her.

When at last she heard the sharp ringing in her ears that was the sound of the bell, she stood up from her seat and moved out of the row of chairs and down the stairs of the lecture room that lead to the professor's desk. He didn't turn instantly, and in fact, he didn't seem to hear her approach, and so, she was surprised when he turned to face her in a moment and smiled, probably at her expression.

"Miss Rhodes, what may I do for you?"

She shook off her slight unnerved feeling at how aware he was of his surroundings and said a mental prayer that what she was about to ask wouldn't be such a stupid request. "Professor, I was wondering if there was a…"

"Sort of remedial lesson for this course?" he finished for her, which didn't help with how she was already feeling from before. "I am afraid that I only have room for people who are failing my class, Miss Rhodes, which you certainly are not. I am sorry I cannot help you now, but I assure you that there are many more people who need the extra assistance more than you do. You are aware that your grade is still very high compared to the average grade here, yes?"

"Yes sir," she managed to reply. "Thank you, sir." Another thought came to her in a flash, and she, hoping that it might be answered more favorably than the first, spoke again. "Excuse me again, professor, but I was also wondering if..."

"I perhaps had a student who knew this and would be able to help you with your work? I do have such a student, Miss Rhodes, and I am sure you know him quite well…"

Her face lit up for a moment. Would she really be able to work with her friend on this and do better? It sounded promising, but her mood was brought to the ground again when Banner continued to speak.

"…however, I am afraid that because of the number of students failing this term, I require Mr. Truesdale's assistance here to help me. I am sorry, Miss Rhodes, but I must regretfully say that if you do need help, you must find another student on your own. I do not think your marks will suffer, however, if that relaxes you some."

"It does," she said, hoping that he couldn't tell how she was lying through her teeth. "Thank you, professor."

"Of course, Miss Rhodes."

The professor's lack of ability to give her extra assistance did leave the girl feeling a little down, but she had to remind herself that he had told her that she wouldn't need such due to her grades. It was a compliment by any and all means of the word, and so, she tried to shake it off as she walked out of the door and into the hallway. There were little to no people around her there, that due to the fact that most students had left for their next class a long while ago.

She quickened her pace to a light jog, and then a real jog, and continued to increase her speed until she was running through the deserted halls. She couldn't be late; that was the very sort of black mark that no student who valued their marks wanted on their records, and especially not in the very first of their three, or more, years at the academy. Sure, Jaden and his close friends were late almost all the time, but she had said that students who really _valued_ their marks didn't want the little black spot on their records, which meant that the group of Slifers was exempt from the feeling. Well, maybe Syrus wasn't, but Jaden certainly was.

Jaden Yuki, she had to admit, was really something. It wasn't that she was drawn to him like Mindy was to any guy who walked by, no, because in fact, she didn't find Jaden immediately attractive in the sense that people commonly think of. He was youthful looking, too youthful for her taste, actually, and it didn't help that he acted just as young as he looked.

Still, she was drawn to the boy, but in the respect that she found him to be a good person with one of the most magnetic personalities that she knew of. He was confident, and he believed that anything was within his reach, that is, if he worked hard enough for it. That would seem contradictory when it was commonly known that he was lax when it came to his studies, or rather, he barely studied any of his studies, but that was because he didn't think they helped him. He slept through classes on the belief that as long as he kept his dueling strong, it wouldn't make a difference. For his sake, she _hoped_ he kept his card skills strong, because they were the sole thing that stood between him and getting thrown out of the school.

She rounded another corner, making sure not to trip because of the heels on her boots, and sighed in relief when she saw the door to the next class a few yards down the hall. She _would_ make it! She knew it! Nevertheless, she ran even faster to be sure that she'd be there before the ring of the bell could be heard. Alexis Rhodes, a true shining star of a student, had never been late to any class in her life that she could remember, and her first year of senior high was not the time to start.

The blonde girl, to her contentment, was able to seat herself in the correct place at the very moment the bell sounded. She gave a little sigh of relief, especially when she noticed that Jaden was there as well, with his two close friends, of course. If they had been on time and she, a favored Obelisk, had been late… She didn't even want to imagine what Doctor Crowler would do once he'd heard about that. He would probably rip his hair out.

What awaited her in the class that she had worked so hard to arrive on time to was nothing but another long lecture on duel theory, a lecture that seemed to be repeated every day. And because it was repeated daily, she saw no need to take notes daily, which meant that she didn't, and yes, it probably wasn't a smart idea, but it hadn't failed her yet. However, if the professor were to look at her, he would glance and, finding nothing wrong, return to his lecture, because she was writing…something.

And what, all who figured out that she was indeed not writing what he said that is, would wonder was _what _she _was_ writing down. The boys would probably hope it was some sort of love poem or letter of sorts, and they would hope that it was addressed to them. However, those boys would be bitterly disappointed if they were to actually read, or rather, look at the page, because all it was, in entirety, was a page of scribbles, not even worthy of being called sketches.

Occasionally there was a sketch that looked normal, or even like one drawn by a talented individual would, but that was only there due to the same logic that scientists used when they declared that from a crowd of monkey painters, one would create the Mona Lisa. She really didn't understand that logic, but she knew she wouldn't need to, nor would she need to agree with it, and so she never gave it any thought.

Really, the only thing that snapped her out of her scribbling state was a question directed at her by way of her name, or the ringing of the bell. The latter took place and she looked up with a blink. She took her paper and pen from the desk before her and stood from her seat, moving around the backs of the chairs and onto the stairs before following those up and out of the lecture hall.

The day was drawing to a close, and that was only the school day. The dance would commence that night, and if there was one thing Alexis was looking forward to, that was it. She'd heard all about the school dance from her brother when he came home for the summer of his first year, and since then she'd wanted to go. It would seem strange to hear, but she didn't actually have a _date_ to go with. She had imagined much different when she was younger, but even though most of the boys in the school wanted to date her, she wasn't interested in any of them.

As far as she was concerned, most of them were all looks and no brains, and the ones she truly despised were the ones who thought she was the same way. They couldn't carry on a decent, interesting conversation for more than five minutes, and she often found that even if they could, which was a rare thing by itself, their eyes were never set on hers and were instead aimed below her face. Once she noticed that, she would give an annoyed sighed and move on if she was in a good mood, or she would snap if she were in a poor one.

She wondered; was she the only one to be single there? Mindy and Jasmine were going with two boys, though she couldn't recall who, and now that she thought about it, she wondered if they knew either. No, Alicia didn't have a date, did she? She couldn't remember. She scolded herself for caring about it, because normally, she would think it was stupid. It wasn't that she was marrying anyone or anything, so why did she suddenly care? Still, unsatisfied, an idea came to her. She hated to admit it, but Zane was quite anti-social at times, and so maybe they could go…as friends, of course…

When the day ended, the blonde immediately sought out the third year Obelisk, and, to her relief, she found him before he'd reached his dormitory. She couldn't walk into the boys' dorm by herself, as it would seem suspicious, but with him, it'd be easily overlooked. Careful not to trip on anything, she ran to him over the grass instead of the stone pavement, doing so to lessen the distance between them. He looked over his shoulder to see her and, when he recognized her, waited for her to reach him. Once she did, they continued on together.

"Hey, Zane," she greeted kindly with a smile. "I haven't seen you around as much as I used to. What've you been up to?"

"Nothing really," he replied. "I'm still the same as before, but I have to agree that we've been seeing less of each other. I think that's a little strange, because we were friends." He stopped walking for a moment. "Please don't tell me that we have nothing in common now that Atticus is…"

"I won't tell you that, because that's not the case here," the girl said, cutting him off before he could even finish the statement. "Why don't we hang out now? We're not by the lighthouse, I know, but that's not the only place here, you know."

"Well, I'm not going to join the library club," he said with a smile, "but we can go to my room if you want. I have something there that I think you'd want to see anyhow, and I've been meaning to show you."

That statement intrigued Alexis to no end, and all she could think about on their way to the dorms was what he could possibly have to show her. A part of her hoped it might be something on her brother, because the amount of news about him really was quite limited, but then, there was another part that was the opposite of that. It was praying that it _wouldn't_ be anything Atticus-related, and though she hated thinking like that, she knew shy that part of her existed. The dance was supposed to be a happy night, and she feared that any mention of her brother could put a black cloud over it, and especially for Zane.

When they did arrive, she didn't ask Zane about it instantly out of courtesy, and instead, because he didn't bring it up, they talked for a time. A part of her wondered if he'd forgotten about it, but she highly doubted that Zane, the top student and undoubtedly the smartest person she knew, would have such a poor memory for things that he considered important. She realized that she couldn't keep it to herself forever, and so, when a temporary halt in the conversation caused a silence, she spoke up politely.

"Did you need to show me something?"

He sighed and nodded, moving over to the nightstand and opening the top drawer. He pulled something out, what, she couldn't really tell, and sat down on the couch, motioning that she should do the same. He didn't move, and instead he simply held whatever it was for a few moments, staring blankly at it as if he was mentally debating whether to show her at all. Still, in time, he did allow her to see it.

It took the blonde no time to recognize the photo as her brother, and, silently asking for permission first, she took it into her own hand and studied it. She didn't recognize that picture of him, and so, she wondered where it'd come from.

"Where'd you find this?" she asked, curious.

He didn't look at her. "I didn't; Alicia did. When we were in the abandoned dorm, she found it in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I don't know when it was taken, but it's the only clue we have to him. Alicia and I looked a little more into it, but we didn't find anything. I'm sorry that…"

"Zane, do me a favor here," the girl said suddenly. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I would prefer it if we could talk about this some other time. At least let's wait for tomorrow, because the dance is tonight, and it should be a happy mood, don't you think?"

He sighed and nodded, leaning back against the couch as if he were fatigued. "I suppose you're right…"

Alexis gave him a smile and leaned back as well. "And on that note, are you looking forward to it?"

"If I can manage to ignore the flock of fan girls around me, then yes, I think it'll be quite enjoyable."

"Are you going with anyone?" Realizing how that must have sounded, especially when she saw Zane blush a little, she elaborated on the subject. "I mean, I'm not at the moment, so rather than be alone there, I was wondering if we could go as friends. That is…" she grinned mischievously, "if you don't have someone already…"

He shook his head at what she was implying. "I'm sorry, Alexis, but Alicia asked me in the same way actually. Well, she offered to be my bodyguard, but it's the same basic principal…I guess… I really would, but I can't just drop her."

She laughed. "Oh please, Zane, you make it sound like it's a prison sentence! You know you don't dislike going with her, even if it's nothing special!" Looking at the clock, the blonde stood and walked towards the door, Zane following her to be polite. "I'll see you there!"

The moment Alexis left, Zane checked the clock to notice that he only had a few hours before the party. He hurried into the bathroom and entered the shower quickly. The warm water relaxed him a little, and it helped relieve some of the tension that was in him because of everyday things. Though he had a little bit of a time crunch, he found himself washing slowly, as though he had an eternity. To him, it was almost as if he couldn't bare to be hasty at all.

When he stepped out of the shower, he ran a comb through his hair while wrapping a towel around his waist. He took the hairdryer in his hand and began to dry his hair at a slower pace, again, since he had the heat setting on low. He wouldn't call his hair particularly long, but it wasn't short either, and so, it took a few minutes to dry completely, but once it had, it was completely styled, except for a few places that were easily brushed into place. He returned to his room and dressed, choosing a tailored blue-gray jacket to wear over a clean, crisp, collared white shirt. The black pants he chose were tailored to fit tighter around his hips, but after that, they fell somewhat loosely, which resulted in a slimming effect, not that it needed to be. He slipped a dark gray belt through the belt loops and buckled the dark silver buckle in the front, though the jacket did cover a good portion of it. He hated to admit it, but the pants were a little big on him from when he'd first bought them.

Before he left the room, he studied himself in the mirror. He didn't see anything out of place on him, but he couldn't help but feel a little depressed about it. He'd thought about the dance since years before, yes, but now that he was actually going with someone, it made him made him feel pain inside. He liked Alicia; that wasn't a problem, but she wasn't… Deciding not to dwell on it, he shook his head while mentally scolding himself and headed out into the hall.

The dance was being held in the common entrance hall of the boys' Obelisk dorm, which was easily large enough to fit the amount of students coming to the dance. And because it was the Obelisk building, it took no time at all to get there, and also no time to locate Alicia. She was waiting for him by the foot of the stairs she apparently knew he'd be coming down from his room on the upper level. When she spotted him, she smiled and took his hand, pulling him down the stairs a little more quickly than he would have come himself.

"I guess that's your idea of casual," she commented while also noting what she was wearing. Compared to her brown camisole under a dull, sort of forest-green jacket that cut off after it covered her ribs, a jacket that was left open, a camouflage skirt that was cut short, and heeled brown boots that came to about her mid calf, he seemed more formal than her. The only thing that wasn't casual about her, in her opinion, was her jewelry, which was a thin, gold chain bracelet, and a matching set of gold earrings and a necklace, matching because they both featured a peridot, her birth stone.

"It is."

She giggled when she realized that he really didn't know what to do in the current situation, but stopped a little when she saw the girls she knew as his fans gazing at him. Deciding to be brutally unkind, she took his hand and led him out onto the dance floor, saying 'Let's dance!' as the only thing to prepare him.

It was a slow dance, and it felt a little awkward with Zane, but the looks on the other girls' faces was beyond priceless and it made dancing with him completely worthwhile. However, her mood deflated slightly when she caught sight of icy-blue eyes glaring at both her and Zane with a fire that could signify nothing but pure hatred. Apparently, Allison had yet to get over being pushed into the ocean, even though anyone would tell her that she deserved it, but at least all she was doing was glaring.

When the two of them finally left the floor, which was after another song, since Zane wasn't extremely in love with dancing, they headed to where they spotted Alexis standing by the wall, ignoring Harrington as he, once again, tried to convince her to dance with him. Zane sighed and said a mental prayer of thanks that he wasn't so pathetic as that, and Alicia giggled because the mental prayer hadn't been so purely mental at all.

"But Alexis, it's just one dance! Why can't you…oh, hey you two…"

Alexis looked up in a hurry when Harrington recognized them and offered Zane a subtle smile that hinted at something, which he immediately understood. With a nod to her and a glance towards Alicia for permission, which was one that she returned with a smile, he took the blonde's hand and led her to the floor, understanding the need to be away from Harrington for a moment. After watching them for a moment, Harrington sighed in defeat and leaned against the wall, hanging his head some.

"It's everyone but me, isn't it? For God's sake, Zane has a girl and I don't?" He shook his head. "That came out wrong… I'm not knocking your boy or anything, Alicia, but…"

"He's not my boy," she interjected, finding it impossible not to laugh at that. "We're friends and that's it. But if you're really that down about not dancing with anyone here, there's a song on right now, so how about it?" She held out her hand and smiled, finding it funny how he stared for a moment before regaining his composure and leading her to dance next Zane and Alexis. When the pair spotted them, they sighed at the same time and shook their heads, which caused Alicia, and remarkably, Harrington, to chuckle.

The dance continued for a couple hours more, but since that moment, they'd stuck together in a group for much of the time, except when Harrington had to leave and spend the time with his group of friends, which none of them minded. Alexis nudged Alicia in the side with a wink as the boy left, causing Alicia to blush, and, though he didn't do anything, she knew Zane was well aware of what Alexis was hinting at as well, and she blushed again, shaking her head.

Zane declared he would walk back to the girls' dorm with them after the dance had ended, but Alicia and Alexis told him that it wasn't necessary. Still he felt that he should at least walk them to the gates of the boys' dorm, and so, they gave in and walked out of the building. The stars overhead illuminated the night sky, as did the moon, though none of it seemed bright since they'd just come from the array of lights from the dance. Still, they could each admire the scene.

"You know you're glad you came, Zane," Alicia said, elbowing him playfully. "Admit it; you would have stayed home and are now glad that you didn't."

"I admit that I'm not unhappy that I came," he replied, "but I would've come anyway because I'm the top student here and it's what's expected…"

As Alicia raised her eyebrows, Alexis spoke in an equally playful tone, "Which is just your fancy way of saying that you had a good time?"

He sighed but allowed a chuckle and a smile to be seen, and not a light, subtle smile but instead a fairly large one. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess that I'll admit to that to."

* * *

Me: Okay! Here's the preview! (Told you it'd be obvious!)

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_In a forest that would usually be so silent that one could drop a pin and have it be heard for miles and miles away, there was no silence at all. Leaves rustled and branches whipped around and a form ran through the trees at top speeds, running so fast that it would seem that the devil was at her booted heels. Bushes on the ground that she ran through punished her for doing so by whipping her with thorns and twigs hidden in them, but she didn't slow her rapid pace._

_Loose branches bent to whip her cheeks as he pushed through them, cutting her face and leaving stinging scratches on her, but she didn't care. She couldn't think about that at all, for her heart's fierce beating was all she could hear, and the pain in her chest and fear in her soul were the only things she could feel. She urged her legs to run faster, but they were giving out from beneath her as they ran, and still she ran harder._

_Screams tore from her throat as she ran, some words including, "Help me!" and "Please!", but much of what came from her was simply screaming and no words in particular. She could barely think to form the words due to how frightened she was, and sometimes she would try to form words and none would come from her. She ran harder and faster, but to no avail as she still felt the same fear as before._

_And in one swift movement, her heart dropped as she tripped on an unseen root of a tree and fell to the ground. The fall from such a speed knocked her into a temporary daze, and so when she attempted to stand, she found herself unable to do it quickly enough. Her luck had run out as she looked up and saw what she could easily consider the face of Hell as another scream, louder than any she had ever screamed yet in her life, forced its way from her to pierce the otherwise still night air.

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_

Me: And there it was! Now, that's the preview to Arc 1! But moving on, it means that the boringness is DONE! D-O-N-E, DONE! YAY!

As usual, I NEED REVIEWS! Please take the time to do so! I don't need you to write a novel, but if you could just leave a little note about it, it would mean the world to me! I always try to reply to my reviews, and if you want, I can go review you stories as well in my thanks:D

Thanks to all of you who have been patient thus far! And thank you Alukakaiserin (And for all of you who haven't read her work, READ IT! It's 100 xs better than this one!) for reviewing again! Was this one a little better for you? I tried to make it a little better for you after reading your review! I hope I was at least a little successful! Thanks again and see you next time!

P.S: Oh, and I'm worried about Alicia turning into a huge Mary-sue, and that's why I put a lot less of her in this chapter and stayed with Alexis and Zane. I know she's probably already one, but I don't want it to get to be on insane levels! If you have any suggestions on that or in general, please tell me…IN A REVIEW!


	20. Arc One: The Seven Deadly Sins

Note: PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM, ESPECIALLY THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.

Me: Once again, I apologize for the lack of updates! High School's not really stressing me out now, but I'm trying to shape my life a bit more and that's really starting to get to me…

But never mind that! Here's the next chapter, which is also the start of Arc One! The title for this leg of the story is officially known as Arc One: The Seven Deadly Sins. Please note, I do not steal characters from other people, and so, if the first thing you all thought of when I said that was that it'd be exactly like the sins from Fullmetal Alchemist, then I want to say that I didn't mean to copy from there! :D

With all that aside, I think it's now time for me to shut up and let this story continue! And so…ONWARDS!!!!!! :D

* * *

Saturday morning was always a celebratory time of giving thanks to the God of the Five-Day School Week for Alicia, and so, she found herself doing just that as she stood from her bed, mentally, of course. That Saturday morning, however, had an even more carefree feel to it. That Friday, the professors had decided to go light on the weekend assignments, those who had resolved to give any sort of assignment at all, that is.

Why would they bother to give their students an assignment-free break? The school's dance had been that Friday and the professors had wanted all students to attend. They believed it was an important social event, and that the students should go in order to show their appreciation for those who worked to create it, and they also believed it would help build new friendships between the students. And so, they didn't want anyone to miss it because they had too much homework to spare any time, or rather, they didn't want the students to be able to _say_ that they had too much homework to spare any time and be able to be believed.

Alicia shrugged after thinking about their reasoning, for she would have easily put such a thing off in order to go to an event such as that, and she was sure that nearly every other student shared the same opinion, but she wasn't about to complain. If the school wanted to not hand out homework, that was completely fine by her, so why bother complaining and causing it to change for the worst? That would probably cause the rest of the students to, after learning how it was she who told the school that they'd go with or without assignments due, take up arms against her, which she didn't classify as a pleasant experience.

She headed over to the window, stretching as she went, to open the drapes in order to see how the weather was for the day. When she pulled the curtains to either side of the window, she couldn't help but sink a little inside. Despite how the rest of the facts for the day were great in her opinion, the weather seemed to want to be the last thing that could stand against her and keep her from spending a day in what seemed like complete and utter paradise.

She had to admit, when she had walked to the window to find out what the day would be like, she had been hoping, or even expecting, to see a bright sun in a cloudless sky that shone down on the grass and warmed the body to the core, and the soul too. She wanted a day that she could spend by first dressing in light clothing and heading outside to inhale the fresh scent of the morning, but it was quite the opposite. Instead of a brilliant sun surrounded by a span of blue, there was almost no sun for dull, gray clouds completely masked it, and from each cloud, raindrops plummeted towards the earth below them, which meant they would also ruin the plans of anyone who wanted to spend their free day outdoors.

Luckily for her, the rain was only drizzling, and seemingly only present to add gloom to a person's otherwise fair day, and that meant that there was an extremely low chance of lightning and thunder, which she _truly_ didn't want to have to deal with on a day that she was supposed to spend enjoying herself. Hiding under the covers, or even better, under the whole bed itself, was not her idea of a relaxing day without school. Though unluckily, the rain also did two other unpleasant things; it cooled the already none too warm temperature, and it produced what she found to be a rather foul smell. She knew she wouldn't even detect it after a few hours, or minutes, but she still would have rather not detected it at all.

And so, since she realized that a walk on the beach or anything of the sort was completely out of the question at that point, unless she didn't mind getting rained on, she knew she needed to plan a different way to spend her free time. She assumed that she could always head down to the tennis courts and hit a few balls around, either by herself or with someone who happened to be around there; what they might consider the wrong place at the wrong time, but then again, she knew she should probably lay off that for at least a little while and do something else.

But what? She could probably go find Alexis and join in whatever she was doing, which probably included Mindy and Jasmine, but because she didn't know what that would be, she put it to the back of her mind while she thought of other things to do, like…find Zane and not join in whatever he was doing but instead drag him to do what _she _wanted to do! Well, according to the extent of her knowledge about the blue-haired Obelisk, he couldn't possibly be doing anything better than something she came up with, so really, he should in theory be on his knees and thanking her for adding so much more zest to his otherwise boring life, which was about two shades grayer than the current morning.

Deciding that the idea of spending at least part of the day with Zane seemed to be a fun way of enjoying herself, she dressed in her school uniform, slipped on a light, brown jacket, brushed her hair and teeth in the bathroom and headed out, en route to…wherever she would go to find the other Obelisk.

Yes, her destination was decidedly the problem. While some may find it just a tad discouraging to set off in search of someone whom they had truly no idea where to find, but she couldn't agree with the pessimists on this one, namely because after declaring her search an impossibility, they would probably never forget to add that last part about the apocalypse resulting as one of the many side effects of it. It wasn't that she had no knowledge as to Zane's location, not exactly; she hadn't made any plans with him so in that, she didn't know for a fact where he was, but after hopefully eliminating the lighthouse from the possibilities there only seemed to be a few places left: his room, Syrus' room, or the library. Such a lifeless person as Zane – though she intended to rob him of that adjective and give him the more favorable one of "nearly lifeless," and maybe she could work her way up to "celebrity socialite" in due time – had a very small range of occupations, thus a small range in locations where he would participate in such.

Quite honestly, as she stepped down the staircase to the first floor, the ground level, of the Girls' Dorm, the hope that to her list she would not have to add the possibility of the abandoned dorm. She'd decided silently that it would have been best to have the Obelisk promise he would never go there alone, seeing what seemed to happen each time he tried, and even once when she had been there. Yes, she was perfectly aware they'd only really gone once, and the other time he had attempted to recently, he was interrupted by the act of fainting during a thunderstorm – of course, if he were beside her, he would probably say something to the effect of, "Men don't faint! They pass out!"

That dorm… there weren't many words to describe it that were any better than "eerie," "haunting," or "menacing." It surprised her that the place used to be a residential dorm, perhaps even grander than the Obelisk dorm; she didn't know for a fact, but it being a residence she'd inferred from the photo of Atticus having been discovered in a _bedroom _upstairs. It looked like it had been out of use for years – a decade maybe? – but somehow she doubted it and wanted to ask Zane, as he must know something due to having been in the school for two full years, yet she didn't want to bring up the place. Doing so might inspire the teen to return there, to look for more clues about Atticus in whatever damn form he might think to look for. She didn't see any other aspects of the building that would mark it as related to the Rhodes boy save the picture of him, none. There was nothing more to find by going there, she was sure of it, and after seeing that ceremonial room in the basement – she was as sure of this as she was the dorm being a residency after eying all those designs in the walls – she'd like nothing better than to have the place torn down. Maybe then it would be safe to scavenge for hints, but even that didn't ease her worries regarding the idea.

Unfortunately, Zane seemed to think it played a major role in his little detective scheme for locating Atticus; it was true that the dorm was near undoubtedly the scene of the crime as it were, she would give him that, but as she said, that was all it was. It wasn't that the cerulean-haired teen would be going to scrape up DNA from the whole place or dust for fingerprints. He would only be going to tell himself that he was putting forth an honest effort, because deep down he felt guilty, still, about the disappearance taking place. It wasn't logical, in fact it was the opposite, due to the truth that his upright, honest effort could easily be morphed into compromising himself if something were to go wrong, or if whoever spirited the brunette away were to come back and find him there…and to what end that would result, she neither knew nor wanted to know.

Zane's room was the first place she checked; it was closest by far, especially when compared to the Slifer Dorm on the near other side of the island, and it also would be the place she would most expect to come upon him. Alicia had admitted already that he wasn't the social type, but those he tended to avoid included almost all people, among them his own brother and whoever would be in the library, so in the end, the only way to achieve his complete privacy was to stay in his room…and lock the door. She hadn't noticed at first, but the more time she spent by him or passed him in the hall, she noticed there was often a small group trailing him; no more than two or three usually, and never exceeding the limit of five, it was a group of Obelisk boys – very rarely girls with the fan girls excluded from the particular group, as they formed their own – who were either annoyingly opinionated and made conversation with the air or each other, as Zane always seemed to ignore their existence, or mysteriously silent, staring at the top duelist with their eyes nearly boring holes in his back. Those too, however, went unacknowledged. These folk, however ignored they were, sometimes took the liberty of following the teen all the way to his room and occasionally inside after that, proving Zane must have at least noticed them then. She wasn't sure what happened after they went inside, as Zane never held a conversation with any of them that she could witness, but a feeling told her there were no words on his part – he probably sat still on the couch or stood by the window and said nothing at all, either letting them do all the talking or remaining in silence with the ones who said nothing as he did. They must leave after being tired of waiting for a wall to talk back.

Alicia scouted for such boys as she mounted the stairs in the Boys' Dorm, and until she reached the floor where his room actually was, she saw no one whom she could at all consider such a stalker. Unfriendly term, yes, but was there any better way to describe someone who tailed you everywhere and showed all signs as they did so of having some sort of unnatural psychological obsession? She wasn't aware of any, and she didn't have a desire to look up any others in a thesaurus – a waste of time for a term that those classified under it didn't deserve a kinder word for.

She thought she spotted one up ahead; there was someone standing before the Obelisk's door, his – and his height suggested to her that it was "his" indeed – hand set upon the white wood, though it was not stationary. It moved up and then down again slowly, and though it did nothing less than creep her out to admit it, it looked like he was petting the door instead of preparing to knock.

For some reason that she could never explain, the girl stopped and couldn't approach him. She couldn't put anything into words at the moment, not even her own name, and it seemed that whoever this was had indeed frozen her in time without even looking at her. Her ability to imagine his face was gone; she could feel the eeriness of his eyes, piercing her soul, and the coldness and insanity of a twisted smile upon a face that, though it belonged to a boy, was strangely beautiful for the maniacal qualities to its otherwise innocent, doll-like features. She didn't know how she felt his beauty, for that was all she did with being unable to lay eyes upon him in reality, but knowing wasn't her first priority – she sure wished she could, instead, find the ability to move again!

And in a second, she could, but it was in that same that he was gone. She ran to the door, looking in a quite paranoid manner in both directions down the hall, and her search was fruitless. There was no one there, and the air was as still as though there never had been. The door was cool to the touch – no heat had gone to it from the man's hand upon it – though it seemed a little warm to her as the air directly about her was freezing. She retracted her hand from the door almost immediately to wrap her arms around herself, goose bumps claiming her skin and sending shivers down her spine. It wasn't winter by any definition outside, nor was it so frigid anywhere else in the dorm that she'd noticed when she made her way to where she currently stood. The only thing different about that one location was the man she had witnessed, and if she didn't know better, she would decide that he had bewitched the place. However, only if she didn't know better, and it must be from some sort of vent leaking cool air down on the spot.

Even after she decided, the girl felt incapable of shaking the uncanny chill that had washed over her unrelated to the shocking temperature; that man, whoever the Hell he was, had disappeared into thin air. That was impossible, anyone knew that except for maybe Jaden – he seemed to be the supernaturalist type – for a man to do; one couldn't simply warp from one place to another. They could move very quickly, yes, but she was _certain_ he was nowhere to be found, and surely he couldn't have moved with such speed down the hall to not be seen by her after she _ran_ to witness his parting.

"Was I…hallucinating?" she wondered. It seemed reasonable that she had blacked out for a moment and daydreamed; she hadn't felt her body at all, hadn't moved, hadn't said a word, and hadn't had a single thought in her brain that was independent from the mystery before her, but why would she dream of a maniac? Someone who took a form that resembled none she had ever laid eyes on in all her years? It didn't make sense, but it seemed the only explanation. "This…is not the way to begin a day of leisure…"

She was somewhat reluctant to touch the door again to knock; for one, she still didn't want to release her arms from their duty of warming her, and another stood that she was afraid to think of the man again. That face…no, that _feeling_ of a face haunted her, even if it was only an illusion…or was it really…? She shook her head, pulling her arms away to rap knuckles gently against it, and rolled her eyes at being childish before proceeding to knock, however swiftly, upon the door. She was ashamed to admit that she looked about her again before the door opened.

Blue eyes were on her after the clicking of a lock and the brushing of the base of the door against the carpeting of the room, and despite how Alicia had ceased her glances about the hall from the moment she heard the Obelisk coming to her, she knew he felt there was something off about her usually peppy persona. He cocked his head to the side to study her face, trying to decipher the most minute of twitches and creases in her brow into an understandable, emotional diagnosis, but judging how he invited her in with no other words, she guessed he hadn't cracked the code.

The girl herself did nothing to change her silence as she went inside and accepted his invitation to sit down on the couch, and he knew something was wrong. With another questioning look to her, he seated himself beside her and spoke her name to draw her attention. It was useless; she turned to him, but her eyes were blank as she stared – his voice had come from somewhere far away. She looked to him and didn't see his face at the same time, and it was only when he squeezed her shoulder that she came back to the earthly world with a jolt accompanied by a quiet gasp of surprise that someone had actually been there to lay a hand on her. This reaction, while it didn't do enough to give the stoic Obelisk a start, unnerved him in the least.

"Alicia? Are you…all right?"

She shook her head, instructing silently that Zane was a real person, not imaginary as she had proclaimed the other man to be, and responded to prove such to herself for good. "Oh, yeah… I'm fine…"

He blinked, obviously not believing her at all. "Of course you are, but if you'd like to offer me some explanation as to why you were in a dream state a moment ago, I'd appreciate it. To be frank, it was slightly disturbing – you seemed more dead than alive."

"Well, I'll at least assure you that I'm most certainly of the living, else I'd hopefully not be able to do this," he blinked again when she flicked him on the nose, "yes? But if this doesn't sound too crazy, were you expecting someone?"

The boy's look to her suggested that he was quickly contemplating whether he should escort her to the nurse and immediately have her checked for a fever, but he played along for the time being; it wasn't such an awkward question, but he felt Alicia knew him well enough to know that she was really the only guest he ever entertained in his room, and he could _never_ predict when she would be there, unless they'd fought – Alexis and he, when they did meet, would really only find each other by the lighthouse, arranged or not. He wanted to know what the girl would say, as a bad feeling was steadily growing in his stomach.

"No, I wasn't. Why do you ask?"

At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to twiddle her thumbs nervously, however refraining with the knowledge that it would only worsen the situation. "Well…there was a man outside your door, and he was…ah…definitely where he meant to be, so I just wondered if maybe you…?"

"…had any idea who he was?" he finished for her. He put a hand to his chin, a pondering action without the far off look that commonly escorted it. "No, I don't, or I don't think I do at the very least. What did he look like?"

She gave an awkward, dry chuckle; oh yes, he would certainly think she had completely lost her mind after this one… "I don't know."

He took it with a straight face at first. "His back was to you?" She nodded, but he continued because there was no elaboration on her part, and as he asked questions, it came to resemble, to quite an odd extent, the act of pulling teeth. "What color was his hair?"

"I don't know."

"Did you see his hair?"

"I don't know."

"What was he wearing? Was he a student?"

"I don't know."

"Was he wearing light colors or dark?"

"I don't know."

He sighed. This girl…did she _see_ anything? Identifying people could be a challenging task, but Alicia didn't apparently remember his hair or clothes! Surely anyone she noticed would at least leave _some_ physical memory in her brain! "Do you remember anything?"

She nodded quickly. "He was insane!" Realizing how similar she sounded with that sudden exclamation, she tried to calm herself, though after a few more words it was to no avail. "He… He was so beautiful…but he was twisted! His smile! The gleam in his eyes! They were twisted – crazy!" She took a moment to breathe. "I never saw anything like it… It was haunting, like _he_ was haunted!"

"You said his back was to you…? How did you see his face?"

"I didn't." Zane raised his eyebrows. "But I felt it! He was grinning with that twisted smirk of a man possessed!"

Alicia's somewhat rambling words caused him to sigh again; she sounded unstable, to be kind and not print the word "insane" directly on her, but he dismissed it for the moment. He knew she wasn't the type of girl to pull this sort of stunt on him purposely – she hated worrying him – and he also knew that she didn't have _this_ many broken toys in the attic, so he settled that she must have seen _something_ outside his door. But what had she meant by "he was definitely where he meant to be?" Was that observable?

"So basically, you're asking me if I was expecting any crazy men to come pay me a visit…?" She pouted. "Well, I wasn't, and I honestly have no idea to whom you're referring, though I'll admit it must've been off enough to bother you so much. Tell me, how do you know he meant to be here?"

She swallowed; no part of her wanted to explain the whole "petting the door" action the man had been doing. "You really want to know? It's creepy, Zane, really; I think I should just keep it to myse-…"

"I'm seventeen years old, Alicia, and I can handle creepy, so just spit it out. Trust me, you'll feel better if you do."

"Well, I don't know about that, but if you want it, here' goes…" It took a breath before she actually complied with his request. "He was…well, quite frankly, _petting_ your door, and I'm dead serious."

His lips curled in a sort of disgusted look, his eyes confused. "_Petting_ my _door_? You do know that's just plain freaky, don't you?"

"So you have no idea who it is?"

"Do you think I make to associate myself with obvious psychopaths? Please," he said it as she was preparing to comment, "leave the fan girls on the side and anyone else in the school, for that matter. If you really saw a man…_petting_ my door, I think we should report it to Chancellor Sheppard. I really hope this isn't the case, but there could be some sort of pervert on the island. I mean, what kind of a person goes around _petting _people's doors? Most definitely not an upright one, that's certain, and we should do something about it before anything happens."

The brunette nodded, standing quickly in order to show how eager she was to alert the Chancellor as soon as she could; there was no hiding that she worried for the Obelisk after seeing the "visitor," though she didn't put it into words out of fear of Zane angering for being worried after. He followed, not bothering to put a jacket on over his uniform even after seeing hers, figuring it was an unnecessary matter that would only waste time that should be otherwise spent warning about a possible threat to the students, or at least one in particular.

The rainfall hadn't increased, nor had any aspect of the gray weather changed in the slightest, but something felt different than it had before. It was as though there was no sun at all, as though it was the blackness of a night enshrouded by choking fog. The pair made their way down the path of the Obelisk Boys' Dorm, their destination set with no desire at all to pause and consider anything around them, and for a time, they were doing just that. It changed, however, when the girl caught sight of something lying next to the path they followed, on the side that faced the dark forest ahead, dark in their knowledge no matter how innocent it appeared in the daylight.

"Hold up," she said, picking it up. It was a card, that much she had determined when it still lay on the ground, but it was torn and dirty with a clear impression in it, apparently from a heel stepping on it after it had been dropped, which explained the dirt. "Take a look at this."

He looked it over and then turned to her, shaking his head to show that he didn't understand. "It's a card; this is a dueling school, so it would make sense if someone dropped theirs…"

"I know but…something feels wrong…" she replied with a shake of her own head. She looked at the card again; Ebon Magician Curran, and suddenly her gaze was drawn to the woods. The trees couldn't be calling her – that was impossible – but for that moment, she knew they would have to take a little side trek through them before the Chancellor; something inside her wondered if that man was in there. "The forest."

"What?" He turned to regard the same patch of green. "But the Chancellor; we have to tell him about that freak you saw…"

"Something's not right here," she stated, pulling his arm as she took off in a brisk pace to the trees. "And as we get closer to these trees, don't tell me you don't feel it too. I don't like it, Zane; there's something in there."

"Don't you think we should tell someone first?" he asked as she dragged him into the woods, ducking out of the way of a branch that swung by his face. "I mean, what if there really is something? I don't want to say we're completely helpless, but I think it might be best to…"

He cut off because the girl was obviously not hearing him. Alicia led onwards, not releasing his arm even though he followed her unquestionably and wasn't prepared to even think about letting her go in alone, and she said absolutely nothing to him. There was nothing to say; clearly she was following her instincts that led her in a certain direction that he himself was unsure of, but he didn't want an argument. He hadn't expressed his emotions truthfully before; that man that she told him about did more than unnerve him, and if he really was in the forest…there was no way he'd stand to have Alicia run into him by herself, and equally, there was no way _he_ would be caught by him after separating from her.

However trailing her with no direct motivation himself for an unknown amount of time, he came to inhale a scent that he imagined the girl had missed, judging by how she was breathing through her mouth in what seemed like a mild panic attack. It was…he couldn't describe it to save his life, really, but it smelled like horror and death. Not rancid like a rotted corpse, no, but of adrenaline, extreme terror, and… He left the thought open, not knowing what the third element was, until he spied a red droplet, tiny in size and dulled to a rust in shade, but strangely obvious to him; it was unmistakable.

"Blood…?"

That got Alicia to stop in her tracks, of course resulting in a collision that knocked them both to the ground in a heap, but she ceased to delay in standing again, pulling him up with her, and demanding him to speak again with more clarity. He was a little surprised by her boldness, but he dismissed it for the sake of the situation.

"That way," he said, pointing. "There's blood and it's in the air. Don't you smell it?"

She gave him a grave nod, her face paling. "Someone…someone is…"

"Don't think about it, Alicia; let's go get help…"

But the girl was back to practically ignoring him. He chased after her when she suddenly bolted in the direction, stumbling as she did so over the various bumps in the forest floor that were rocks and roots, yet none seemed to slow her breakneck pace. Distance was growing between the two as she pulled further and further ahead, thanks to his being more careful to avoid obstacles, including the branches that she paid no mind to when they whipped her cheeks. At one point, he feared losing sight of her as the horrid scent became more potent in the air, and frighteningly, the drops of blood but more frequent and in greater numbers.

It was only after chasing her for a short amount of time that he was able to catch her, when she came to a screeching halt up ahead and screamed like he'd never heard anyone before.

"Oh my fucking God!"

She shrieked again, this time only sound instead of words, and buried her face in his chest, her stomach threatening to force its way out through her mouth as she did so much as recall the morbid scene before her. He held on to her tightly, his mouth dropped and eyes open wide in shock, saying nothing as he felt water seeping through his jacket from tears of fright. His breathing became pants, as hers had already done, and he was sure to begin near hyperventilating if he looked further, but he couldn't turn away.

There was blood _everywhere_; on the trees, on the rocks, even on higher branches, and of course the ground, where the bulk of it was. Cards were thrown about the floor, many of them dripping with the thick, dulled ruby liquid that had once accounted for a person's life, and a few torn as the first card they found had been. And lying in the center of it all, of all the blood and horror, was the body of a girl clothed in a torn Obelisk Blue uniform, no longer white but scarlet red.

But as they both braved a few steps closer, despite Zane pulling Alicia's head back to face his chest each time she turned it to look, they could not identify her. The girl's face was completely disfigured; it was cut up and mutilated by what looked like a combination of blades, scratches, and rocks, and there was nothing left of the identity it had once possessed. It was terrifying to know that the bloody mess had been a face at all – terrifying to know that someone had actually destroyed a person's visage so savagely as they obviously had done. However, while easily able to make them vomit, the face was not, perhaps, the most frightening thing they witnessed about the body.

By a knife, whoever had committed the crime had carved the word "Turpissima" into her chest.

Alicia broke away from Zane for a moment to look at the body one last time and see if she could find a familiarity, even with the face marred beyond all recognition. The cards were all but useless; the blood had fouled their appearance and she couldn't make out what any of them were. However, she looked at the girl again, avoiding her chest and face, or whatever it was now, as much as she possibly could, and she found something. When she did, though, she faltered backwards into her companion, breathing the words as she did so.

"That necklace…it's her…" Her eyes widened again. "You don't think…because she hated you…Zane…that man…"

He gasped. The temperature about their forms dropped about twenty degrees below freezing, but they couldn't find it in them to shiver. Time was still along with the air; both hovered menacingly and brushed past them every once in a while, taunting them with dangerous whispers. A cold breeze raked across the pale boy's cheek, not drawing blood of course but with the same sharpness of the blade that had murdered the student before them. He still didn't respond with movement, not even to draw a hand to his mouth.

"Oh God no…"

* * *

So that'll be the first chapter of this arc here. As you might have noticed, this story is going to head more towards the creepy side when it comes to these plots. It doesn't mean that there won't be lighthearted moments, no, but it does mean that there will be ones also like the end of this chapter here. I'm not going to censor language anymore either, and they'll be talking like real kids their age, so expect some new words to fly out like Alicia said. Maybe it's a strong word, but what would you say if you saw a dead person all bloody in front of you…? XD

But while I'm on this point, I was wondering if I should bump up the rating here. I mean, it's going to get violent, at least in this arc and probably in the others as well, and there will be dark parts that I'm not sure really fit under "Teen." When you combine all that with the romance, which I think is fine on its own, I'm just not sure and I don't want to be criticized for keeping this a T story, you know?

PLEASE REVIEW. You have no idea how much it helps me, and especially after a block like this! I felt so damn bad about not updating, but I just had a complete writer's block for this here piece, and others as well, and I'm going to try and get to all of them on a semi-regular basis. I dropped a class in my school (NO IT WAS NOT A BAD CHOICE! Lol) so now I get out at 2:40 instead of 3:40, thus I'll have more time to slave away at writing one chapter at a time. You know what they say, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." (Unless you're my friend, who I tried to encourage with such VAST KNOWLEDGE and who promptly replied, after a very blank look, "No.")

Thank you all! By the by, correct my Latin if you wish!

A/N: I was also wondering if I should make the rest of this story (Including this chapter) a new story as a SORT of sequel. I was just wondering because it's going to get less kid friendly from here on and I also know that my writing style is different and longer now than in the beginning of the story, so it might be necessary to separate them. PLEASE tell me what you think in a review, because I'm completely lost about this. Thank you again! :D


	21. Chapter 21

Me: And another chapter is posted here! I have to say, there weren't too many hits on the last one (Maybe all are tiring of this? So sad since I just began to raise the maturity here…XD) but I don't know what happened because when I went to check on it, it wasn't appearing in the stories section…odd eh? ?_?

In any case, the rating's been raised as you can see, and I have a funny feeling it'll stay that way (Just a hunch really, but I'm 99% sure it's right…lol) I think it's better this way, and if it doesn't need the M, all you kind people will tell me! I also apologize for this being so short!

Ahem, so without further ado, please enjoy!

* * *

_Puella turpissima_

_Puella turpissima_

_Cur tu non potest esse bella pro me?_

It was raining; clear drops were falling down in a sprinkle from the sky – so perhaps it wasn't worthy of bearing the title of "rain" – and they did little to grace the ground with their presence. The forest floor was already near saturated – it wouldn't take long for little flooded pools to form upon it – by another means, of a far less pleasant sort. The grasses swayed in the fair breeze that brought the small amount of rainfall through the trees, striking the forms of two teens who really didn't seem to notice they'd been hit. It did nothing to comfort them, nor did it even endeavor, for it seemed to only snicker at their misery and pelt harder against their bodies with the little might it could muster.

The younger of the two was by far the more noticeably affected, though that in no way meant her companion wasn't in the least, and yet she couldn't tear her eyes from the source of her agony – from the grisly sight set before her. If her mind was at all conscious, which she would have doubted it was, would have due to the loss of her free will to control even her thoughts at the moment, she would have turned away, but as every living creature in the forest could witness, she did not.

Her eyes were blank; dark, soulless things, really, with no spark of the original life they'd possessed just that morning before the rest of the day had its chance to play out, their amber glow completely gone and replaced by dull brown. A painting's eyes held more life and emotion in them than hers did, a painting crafted by the most mediocre of all the mediocre artists who strove for their slice of fame, from the pie that in their hearts they knew was long since gone and divided over and over until it couldn't be divided henceforth. She stood completely still, her mouth not moving to even allow the quivering of her lips, and her eyes unable to shed the tears that had fallen previously – they'd apparently all dried up.

His arms were around her but she didn't feel their warmth for there was none – he was as cold as she. There was the soft breath on the back of her neck, too soft considering where they stood yet there nonetheless, but there were no nerves in her body that could detect it. Her blood had frozen solid in her veins and her heart had all but stopped, save for the fact that she stood still a member of the living. Even so, the blackness that accounted for her mind at the given moment couldn't decide if it was dead or alive – a state of suspended animation of sorts in which she was both, and no one would ever come to know which she was truly. There was no hyperventilation then; there was only surprisingly calm, barely audible breaths that were out of sync with her friend's which originated from behind her, so terribly close yet so far away.

And then suddenly there was a twitch in her nose as it detected a new scent that hadn't made itself previously known to her, and there was a tickling on her leg that she ceased only by shaking it so that the fly would leave her to her own problems and go after what it had come for. The metallic scent in her nose – it could be copper, it was so pungent – took time to be classified by her still ailing brain, put to rest by the darker subconscious, and yet her eyes took part in solving the puzzle as well, filling her head with red. Scarlet, crimson, ruby – there were so many vibrant shades of _red_ that illuminated the darkness, to no relief for her, however. The reds dripped down inner walls of her mind, crying out to her and chanting, "Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood!"

Her eyes shot open, losing the glassy film they'd obtained while she'd stood still in the face of time and she screamed.

She still could look away; it was masochistic, wasn't it? The sight alone made the thought of throwing up and altogether dying seem so very enticing; to be rid of the screeches in her head, each sounding to be dying as they did it by the same cause as the dead girl before her, and to not have to see the red running down through the grass, soaking the earth beneath its original owner. All she felt able to do was keep screaming – her motor functions were gone, so what hope was there to do anything else, even close her eyes? It would do her no good even if it was possible, for the voices in her head were relentless, now adding the word, "Murder!" to their haunting and utterly maddening chorus.

Zane grabbed her again in a hurry and pushed her face into his chest to hide it from the view it had overdosed on, his arm around her back with his other hand in her hair, preventing her from turning around again. He was a little rough when he did it – the side of her face felt a little sore, most likely from a scratch given to it when it was pulled against something in such a hurry – but in all her still continuing panic she didn't notice a thing and established a frantic, claw-like grip under the arm of his jacket, so strong that it seemed to nearly tear the garment. She screamed again into him, her eyes wide open and burning from dehydration and the need to release tears but with the inability to do so; it was very much like the water had been frightened out of her.

He tried calming her with what soothing words he could manage to croak out of his throat; his tone was dry and scratchy and too soft to hear, yet somehow he prayed she heard it even through her temporary – or at the very least what he hoped _was_ temporary – insanity. He was shaking himself, legs wobbling with the force he was using to keep her to him and arms and hands burning almost as much as her eyes for the same reason. He could hear her breathing escalate to a high-pitched pant, and there was no way she was getting anywhere near the oxygen she needed with it. Those breaths were shallow and completely devoid of any air, nothing more than hollow sounds from her desperate lungs.

"Okay…okay…breathe…" She wasn't hearing him; it was only growing worse. "Alicia, calm… Please try to calm before you faint…" He tightened his hold on her, despite how his body willed to do the opposite. "I'm here with you… Shh; cry on me. It's okay…I'm here – you can feel me..?"

"She….she…!" Those were the only words she could choke out. Tears were finally beginning to fall.

"She doesn't feel anything… She's not hurting anymore… It's all right…you're safe, I'm safe, and now so is she… All you need to do is cry on me because I'm here with you…"

She did just that for what seemed equal to forever. He never complained, not once, about the length of the time she spent "gathering herself;" he only rested his head atop hers and sighed, trying to display the pace of the breathing he wished she'd copy for her own. He couldn't tell yet if the girl was traumatized for the rest of her days by the sight; even though she certainly seemed it at the time, she _was _calming, however slowly she was doing so. He hoped she wouldn't be; he would hate to lose the girl he already knew.

She sighed for the first time since she saw the girl lying on the forest floor. The voices in her head weren't so loud anymore; they were no greater than whispers that she had to strain to hear, which she most definitely did _not_, and they posed no threat to her mental stability as before. Her grip on Zane loosened – no longer was she digging her nails into his flesh, which she would have done if his jacket wasn't in the way – and then disappeared entirely as her hand fell weakly to her side. She felt suddenly dizzy and whispered the best she could that she needed to sit down, which he luckily heard and took her to sit at the base of a thick tree, just out of sight of the bloody mess that sickened her.

"We need to tell the Chancellor – _now._"

He told her this and she nodded; it was obvious that they couldn't keep this to themselves, as it was obvious that they had exactly no want to safeguard the information of something that could threaten many more students on the island. Still, he worried about the body. If the rain picked up or…_something _came to compromise it, what proof would they have of any of this until experts were called in, and they wouldn't… He stopped thinking along that line of thought and turned to the solution. He had his cell phone in his pocket and it was well equipped with a camera, hopefully not meant for this situation anyway, though. All he needed was evidence – a snapshot of the sight he'd give anything not to see again, but…

Zane looked down at Alicia. He didn't want to leave her there, even for the couple of seconds it would take for him to make his way to the scene of the crime and maneuver himself to a spot from which he could take a clear picture of the body. The forest was empty, save for possibly whatever bastard had dared done that to the girl, now dead on its floor, and it didn't comfort him to have the idea of a possible killer in mind when that man had apparently been looking for something that _he_ was in possession of, and that could include his own life.

No doubt Alicia would feel the same way – that it wasn't safe for either to be alone after what they just found, though knowing her, she would probably append more danger to his solitary state than to her own. And he had to reckon she wouldn't like his plans either; taking a photo of a dead girl's mutilated body would probably set her off again, and so he had no basic instinct to tell her. He kneeled before her form – she was still shaking, though maybe it had been reduced to trembling now – and put a hand to her shoulder; it was an attempt at both comfort and at gaining her attention, which she was likely to have not otherwise offered him. She met his gaze with hers. Her eyes were of the living again, which dispersed at least some of his worry, but they were so much more frightened than his, and at that moment she had no hope of discerning why.

"I'm going back there…" When she grabbed at his arm in a flash, he took her hand gently and covered it for a moment with his to speak gently, "Not more than a moment – I would never leave you and you know that," before managing to carefully pry it off, feeling the red marks that would surely mar his skin for a little while from the pressure.

He stood and left then, not giving her time to question for what purpose he returned to the horrible place. There was a feeling in his chest that he couldn't explain as he fingered the phone in his pocket, not pulling it out yet; it felt like his chest was caving in, and that it felt better to not think about the tearful brunette he'd left no more than six yards behind him. The same feelings of dread didn't overtake him too much so as he angled the phone in his outstretched hand, having taken it already before he could change his mind about whether he was going to do it or not. It felt a little…like betrayal to him, for some reason, to take the picture when it would bother Alicia if she found out, which really meant "when she found out," because he couldn't keep anything from her. It wasn't something he was proud of – Alicia being able to read him like a book like that. He would occasionally come to feel violated, that none of his secrets were really safe with him anymore.

He'd never before experienced that. He hadn't many friends, it was true of his years spent perfecting his dueling and being sent off for training high in the mountains where there was none but his teacher, but the ones he had didn't seem to delve as deeply into his thoughts as the girl did. Maybe they didn't want to, and not because they were afraid necessarily. Perhaps they too thought it to be an invasion of privacy and his personal business, meant to be pondered by his brain and none other, but there was no doubt that Alicia had no such limits. She wasn't cruel, in fact she was the opposite; she wanted to be there to help when he needed her, knowing that the one he would turn to was lost to him, and along with that she was also aware that none of his problems could be solved with only knowing what was on the surface.

Some people wore everything about themselves on the top layer of their being; you could have one conversation or take one look at them and realize what kind of a person they were, what they'd been through in their current amount of years, and everything else one could dream of knowing. But Zane was not one of those people; each and every shard of his life and thread of his soul was under lock and key, tucked away beneath the frozen tundra of a surface he bared. One would have to chip away until they found something noteworthy, which could be so simple as a birth date for the Obelisk, but no one did. No one dared. And that was why his friends were numbered using only his ten fingers as a means to tally them. No one endeavored to make nice with him, and the ones who did…they gave up so quickly when nothing changed for them. He supposed that was his fault for not trying to help them do it, but he couldn't change who he was. He needed to give people the test to reveal their dedication, which few had passed, because he lived in a place where the good never had time to stick around.

Alicia… Well, she had an unusual style of bonding - that he could say. She hadn't approached him to be immediate friends, or for any acquaintanceship in the least. They didn't get along, and she hadn't needed to pick at the ice surrounding him because she burned it with her words, leaving him exposed and learning of his pain and insecurities that way without meaning to. Now, she was the one who knew the most, who knew him inside and out, or at least had the potential of knowing such. Was he comfortable with it? Maybe not – he wasn't accustomed to anyone being there for him to discuss his own problems with, and at first he would wonder if this thing with Alicia…was a real friendship or if she was just blackmailing him with everything she knew. He doubted now that she was manipulating him like that, but his trust in anyone was nonexistent, and with her it was just starting to grow…

His thoughts stopped; something had rustled in the trees.

In one fluid motion, he forced the phone back into his pocket and turned from the sight, making his way back to Alicia in a run, and hoping she was still there. The likelihood of her being gone was slim, but that sound had sent a wave of panic flooding through him; even though he had no way of identifying what it really was, there was an uncanny surety in his mind that it was caused by the same person who killed Allison and ruined her body. How anyone managed to do what they had to the high school girl was the sickening part to him, worse than the view itself, because what kind of mindset would someone have to have to go through with it and obviously be collected enough to not leave a noticeable trace behind? A psychopath, that's who could do it – someone who held no person's life to any value, and perhaps not even their own – and he knew just who that could be; the stalker he'd heard about. The link to Allison was clear; she hated him and caused him grief, so the stalker, convinced he was attached to him, killed her for it. Based on the knowledge Zane had retained from psych courses he'd opted to take, though why was still a debatable factor that concealed itself from him as well, however he may occasionally chance the explanation that it was to get inside the heads of his future opponents standing yards away on the opposite side of the dueling field.

He barely stopped when he approached the Obelisk girl. He told her only that they were leaving right then and that she shouldn't question what he said until they were a safe distance away from the area. She didn't protest, but that didn't mean she was completely silent as he pulled her behind him, a reverse of how they'd entered the woods, as she asked if something happened. He ignored her and begged her to be quiet in a hushed whisper, looking about him at the tall trees that blocked most of the sun from their view. He would turn at each rustle but never slow his running pace, nor would he release her and expose the chance that she might trip and fall behind and that that man would get her.

He heard steps behind him, steps that didn't belong to Alicia's boots, and he only ran faster. He knew she sensed something being wrong, but she didn't appear to hear the sound he did, most likely from focusing only on him and not on the forest for her own good; it would take a long while before the place would mean anything aside from that suffering to her. She couldn't picture the death too clearly, that she was thankful for, but that didn't mean she had completely banished its scent from her nose, nor the terror it struck her with from her body, and she wondered when she really would be rid of both.

But Zane didn't fear when the girl would cease to haunt his memory for in fact she already had and the only thing he saw in the sense of terror was the feeling that they were being pursued. His previous ware as to avoiding branches and roots was gone; materialized out of the air, it's absence caused them both to stumble as they ran, yet nothing came between him and his drive to get the Hell out of there and that included a few bumps. Alicia's cheek was bleeding now; another branch had hit the previous scratch and deepened it, and he felt tenderness on his own face that was in line with a bruise from hitting a thicker branch himself, which thankfully didn't hit her as well.

He felt their pursuer was gaining on them, no matter how nothing about their surroundings changed in the slightest, and he ran at top speeds until finally they broke through the end of the trees and made it to the path, that which led to the Academy.

They looked at each other, he at her blood and she at the red marks on his face, and stared. For a moment, they couldn't move, much like when they came upon the body but not caused by shock or terror; it seemed the result of concern for the other's injuries. Zane's hand was reaching for his pocket again – he had a tissue in there that he was to offer her for the cut – but it dropped beside him again, having taken nothing from its original destination, as he silently told her that it would wait until they told the Chancellor about everything, and until they were even further from the woods. She wasn't offended; she nodded and started up the path with him in a hurry, their arms linked as they jogged briskly, not really caring about any of the glances they received from confused students wandering about.

The school was relatively empty when they arrived – that was, however, to be expected. When it was a day off from classes, the only people who would spend time there other than in the library were those who had no choice in the matter: students with detention, security guards, and of course those whom they sought out. Chancellor Sheppard's office was on the fourth floor, making it a bit of a walk but made longer by the looming possibility that whoever murdered a student could be going after another at the very moment. They opted for the stairs; for some reason, neither felt like leaving anything to chance, such as whether the elevator would be stuck in the shaft or not.

Had Alicia gone first, she would have simply burst through the door to the office the very second she reached it, but Zane held her back in order to knock rapidly upon it. Barging in wasn't a way to make an impression, and the man would no doubt gather more information if they were both calmer than if they slipped into hysterics before him. There was a knowing light in the girl's eyes that signified her understanding of his reasoning; however that did nothing to stop her from pushing ahead of him and charging inside anyway.

"Ah, Miss Rayonetto," Sheppard said, his voice a little caught in his throat from her sudden entry so soon after the knock, which he figured she had been responsible for. "Apparently, you wish to see me, so what can I…"

"Sir, it's urgent!" she declared, interrupting him and beginning to do exactly what Zane had worried she would. "There was… There is…!"

"There is what? Alicia, I don't…Zane!"

She whipped her head around to face him when he entered the room in a much more collected fashion when compared to hers, and stepped to let him stand before the desk as well, wondering and hoping he could phrase what she meant better than she herself could. Zane didn't say anything for a little while, and to her it appeared he too was chewing over the wording of the statement; it was such a clear, simple thing to speak and yet it was so hard to even think of. The thought that they shouldn't be forced to think of it ran through both minds, but they didn't dwell on it; regrets would serve no purpose here.

"My Zane, what's happened? You two look quite like you've seen a ghost!"

Zane swallowed heavily – how he wished the man didn't have to say that, what with it being so close to the truth of what they _did _see. Who knows; maybe if they had waited until nightfall…? He shivered.

"No, but Sir, we… We found…something terrible…in the woods."

At once, thick eyebrows sloped downwards as their master's face became stern. "What did you see?"

And as Zane prepared to tell the man just what they had seen, as Alicia studied the lack of horror in his pale face, a new thought struck her as to the boy's stoic visage that had remained mostly such in this ordeal. For there before her she saw a person who could feel nothing of loss because he had become far too accustomed to it; there in him was a heart battered and broken too many times over to count that it beat mechanically in his chest – there was only one spark still within it, but should they never find the fateful person it depended on, she was quite sure that, of its human ability to care and trust at all, there would be nothing left.

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1: Forgive and correct my awful Latin! The phrases at the top are meant to translate as:

_Ugly girl_

_Ugly girl_

_Why can't you be beautiful for me?_

And there's the second chapter done! Now I realize how cheap this one sounds (I mean, seriously, who writes these lines? Oh wait, I forgot – that's me) but I at least hope it'll pick up with the later additions….when we get to the action! (Finally)

Thank you all for reading thus far, and please leave your opinions behind for me to see! (You can't imagine how satisfying that is) even for you non-members! (The only thing I don't like about anonymous reviews is that I can't thank the contributor!)

If you guys have any ideas for ANYTHING in this as well, tell me too please! I would love to incorporate other people's ideas, and of course I'll credit you!


	22. Chapter 22

Despite it being impossible, I've updated within the month! (And everyone gasps) I don't have too much to say here – no real warnings or comments as of yet, and so I think the best thing to do would be to let you read further!

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It seemed like an eternity had passed since Zane made the fact that they found something known to the Chancellor, but that eternity had gone by without the slightest of noises. The Obelisk boy was silent again, even with his eyes looking directly to the man he was to speak to with a look that could easily be taken for a surety in himself. His lips were no longer parted; they had shut again softly when he didn't speak after the first few minutes, probably to avoid standing there with a rather dumbfounded expression upon his face.

Alicia couldn't truthfully say she knew why he was taking his time. Had it been her to make the statement, she would have had difficulty doing so, and she wouldn't have spoken already, or at least past her upset ramblings. However, it was not to her whom the man looked; it was to the teen she knew could say it. Perhaps Zane was getting cold feet now that he thought over it, but why wasn't known to her. He wasn't really considering keeping this between the two of them…?

"Chancellor." As the first word spoken in years, it seemed thunderous, though actually quite the opposite after being surrounded by Zane's soft, yet strangely authoritative tone. There wasn't anything more to immediately follow it up, and that did nothing but confuse those who listened.

"Zane?"

The Obelisk said nothing more. He opened his mouth – maybe two or three times, just a crack each one however – and closed it again, the only breaking of the silence due to breathing. That breathing seemed normal; it was not alike pants, gasps, or any other form of altercation that would symbolize great trauma, but Alicia noticed when the boy began to tremble.

It was soft at first, and she had barely seen it. At first she thought it was her own eyes playing tricks on her – that he was really standing as rigid as he usually was, but as she looked further, she was forced to choose between it, the truth, and that her eyes would need an examination because they apparently couldn't keep the world stationary. She chose the trembling; it was only his form that shook while the rest of time stood still, watching with anxiety as to what would indeed be left said and unsaid in the office that day.

The look on the Chancellor's face had shifted from stern to worried very quickly as the trembling worsened, now more comparable to shudders as he closed his eyes, but in an almost defiant manner – refusing to look at the man who had risen from his seat to lean on his desk, studying him. Alicia stepped slowly to him and put a hand on his arm, feeling the tremors as vibrations and squeezed gently, trying to get his attention.

It wasn't going as planned, but that wasn't among her current worries. Zane was so calm before – she was the one deeply affected by that…that sight she'd seen with him. But now, why was it that he couldn't speak when she felt relatively nothing at all? She wondered if maybe it was crashing down on him – the reality, that was, that a girl in their school who they knew had been brutally murdered. She supposed it was plausible that he hadn't really thought about it when he pulled her away from the forest, doing his best to keep calm before her eyes, but somehow she doubted it. If he hid his own horror so well from her then, there was no way that he, with how driven and collected he was, would let himself slip up now when she was still beside him so soon later.

"No…"

The quietness with which he spoke caused the word to almost go unheard, in fact it had gone in such a fashion by the Chancellor, but the girl beside him heard it and squeezed his arm again. It had affected him, apparently, but she whispered mild comforting words to him – "It's all right" and the like, though each having no immediate effect on his present state. He stepped back from where he was, surprising her, and his eyes opened again to lock on the man before them.

In those eyes, there was a concoction of vast emotions, each deep as oceans and yet too numerous to identify separately. She saw the glassiness of hurt and the flash of anger and fury, though not of the present sort but rather an old, dull ember from the past – of times that should have been long since forgotten but still plagued his thoughts. Unmasked by them, and perhaps the most prominent of the emotions, was the look of cautiousness brought by supreme distrust; narrowed squarely at the Chancellor, the girl wondered if those eyes meant Sheppard would be notified or not.

And then it was gone – all of it. The anger, the hurt, and the distrust vanished, leaving only the dullness of nothingness. His eyes were blank as hers had been after seeing Allison on the forest floor, except there was something more frightening about his condition, for it felt strangely irreversible. Something was wrong, yet with no hints given by his façade, she could never know to help him, and she knew she would ask him later.

However, there was still a dead girl to have her story told and her murderer found and punished, and so, she heard the words, "Chancellor, Allison Heliodyn was murdered!" spoken loudly in a voice that was a perfect twin to her own.

That caught the man's attention, though it did not leave Zane as quickly as she would have expected it to, what with the news involving his student's death, but she dismissed the criticizing thought from her mind, deciding it wouldn't help anyone find the killer or figure out why Zane had suddenly stopped speaking. There was a look on his face that she couldn't label right away – a look that had appeared the moment she spoke her name; relief?

No, that couldn't possibly be it. She must have been seeing things, she thought, for there was nothing the least bit comforting about what she had just relayed to him, but it worried her. Was she seeing things the same way she was when the student beside her began to tremble? She only hoped she wasn't, and when there was nothing to prevent her from doing so, she spoke again, this time the full explanation of her news.

"We found a card of hers by the forest and went inside, and that's where we found… Where we found…" she felt herself losing the calm she'd mustered during the time she waited for Zane to do this horrible telling of tales for her. "She… Oh God, I can't…"

"We found her dead and disfigured on the ground. Had she not worn the necklace unique to her, there would have been no way to tell who she actually was."

She blinked, looking up and over to Zane as he spoke for her, no doubt realizing that when she had said she couldn't, she'd meant it with all sincerity. Her face would have displayed thanks to him for it – now they could actually obtain the support and aid from the head of the school as they'd desired, but there was an eerie quality to how he only began voicing his words just then after such awkward silence that unnerved her in the least. She tried to shake it off; what mattered was that it had been spoken nonetheless, with no concern as to by whom, but her mind didn't want to listen to that explanation.

"Murdered?" Sheppard asked quickly, stepping away from his desk and beginning to approach them, which the girl noticed went unappreciated by Zane, to speak nicely of the way his eyes were beginning to narrow again. "Here? In the forest…?" He continued at the nod, from her that she was surprised he'd seen – he only looked into the cerulean eyes at her right. "Was there anyone around that you saw?"

"No," the boy answered. "There was no one in the forest. We only saw Allison and then we ran here to tell you. I didn't see any traces or evidence while I was still there, and I'm sorry that I don't have anything to show you."

He lied. Of course he had evidence – he had the picture, and of course he had felt another presence in the trees beside his and Alicia's own, but he said nothing. He didn't tell the man about the stalker outside his room that morning who had mysteriously vanished after Alicia laid eyes on him, or at least must have despite remembering nothing as to his appearance.

It hadn't been his original plan to hide the stalker from the Chancellor, that he knew, and that he also knew Alicia would wonder about due to his keeping it a secret, one that he hoped she'd pick up on to keep as well. There was nothing about the mystery of "he who pets doors" that he'd wish to keep to himself, but after finding Allison…he wasn't so sure anymore. It was different now; that man wasn't just a stalker, now he could be a _murderer,_ and that was the part that made him bite his tongue after lying, and shoot the girl a look to follow his lead.

The bald man sighed and put a hand to his head. They couldn't tell what he was thinking, but had they been able to, they would have known that he felt the equivalent of failing at everything he'd lived for. The girl was dead on _his_ island, at _his _school. He had so many security staff patrolling every day, every night, and yet she was dead? Murdered and, from the sound of it, been at the same time a victim to the insanity of a mad sociopath? It wasn't possible, it _shouldn't_ be possible. How…?

He didn't know, but he knew he needed to see the body, and there was only one way to do that. His basic instinct told him to not let the two see any more of what they'd already been forced to see at too young an age, but he knew that solution wasn't efficient; one of them had to show him where the body was. He looked to both; there was no way he would have them both endure the sight, and so he weighed each side according to how they'd already behaved.

Alicia could, he decided, not bear to come. She had been hardly sane herself when she'd first burst in the room to inform him, and she couldn't say anything about the crime else she would begin shaking and grow startlingly silent soon after. That left Zane; he _had_ shaken, but something, yet he didn't know nor wanted to know what, made it perfectly clear that the shuddering wasn't caused by any emotional havoc related directly to the case at hand. His head shook, hating the choice he had no option but to make, and he felt himself mentally asking to be forgiven by some higher authority.

"All right. Miss Rayonetto, let's get you to the infirmary. You'll need to have that cut looked at."

Alicia blinked; the cut on her cheek…she'd almost forgotten it was there, albeit bleeding and, now that she was reminded of its existence, stinging her face. She didn't waste any time in following the Chancellor out of the office when he stepped past them wordlessly, and she pulled Zane along by the arm when he went oddly rigid in his stance, unmoving without assistance, she decided. Nothing that was happening was clear to her anymore; all sanity had gone and all bets were off. No longer could she count on Zane to explain anything for her that she couldn't, nor tell the complete story without adjusting it slightly to fit needs that she herself couldn't see.

She couldn't believe he'd lied, but she caught that look from him that begged her not to say anything and told her silently that she would understand later, and so she kept her wonder to herself and told the man nothing about what she felt was a suspect to the crime. At least one thing she felt she could count on was Zane not breaking his promises, even silent ones, to her. He would explain later, she knew, for he always did and he had no reason the hide anything from her after they'd both gotten themselves accidentally involved. They were alone in that; no one else knew the whole story, and no one else knew of the ties between Allison, the deceased, the murderer, most likely sharing the body of the stalker from the morning, and Zane, the object of interest in at least the stalker's case. Therefore, she was the only person he could talk to, tell all his suspicions, and he the only one for her to do the same, had she any.

The Chancellor didn't relay any of their conversation to the nurse when they arrived, rather he pointed to the cut on her face and Miss Fontaine set out to mend it at that moment, not asking him about his presence and instead only asking the girl with the mark about where it had come from. Alicia told her it was from a branch, also carefully leaving out none too easily the point as to why they were among branches, and that was a good enough explanation for the woman. It was only when she turned to Zane, standing beside the Chancellor but giving him none of his attention, that a door opened in the air, releasing the first puffs of tension to later accumulate into a cloud.

"Now how about you; you have those bruises on your face, Zane. Stay here a moment and I'll go and fetch you some ice. You both can rest here if you want – I know you two have a habit of being together."

The teen cracked a small smile, but it was gone when the Chancellor spoke, basically deciding for him, even though staying wasn't an expected outcome on Zane's part.

"Actually, I need Zane to come with me for a moment, Miss Fontaine. I'll send him back here if you would like following that, but at present we are both needed elsewhere."

She seemed puzzled. "At this very moment? The boy's hurt himself, not too bad but still a little, and I can't see what's so drawing on this Saturday afternoon…" She stopped. "Is there something wrong…?"

He stepped away from the teen at that time and she knew the answer would have been yes if he'd replied at all. She nodded slowly and beckoned him to follow her, moving away from Alicia, though telling her that she would be gone for a moment to fetch her a bandage, into her office in the corner. It wasn't completely out of earshot – the infirmary wasn't truly that big, but their voices were hushed so that the two left behind heard not one word of the conversation, yet they could feel the nurse's reaction. Her head shook and she put a hand to her chest, feeling her heart beating rapidly beneath it along with how her breathing had begun to accelerate from the stress of the words. She said something back to the man, looking over at the students as though indicating them while she said it. They could imagine what that meant; she challenged the man's decision to bring Zane along.

"He's so young…!"

"Too young, too young, I know…! But how else could we find it…?"

They heard no more. Their voices had risen for the moment, no doubt the result of emotions leaking out of their control the more they conversed, and as a result of Fonda Fontaine not agreeing with bringing a seventeen-year-old back to the scene of the crime where a girl he knew was killed, but they could see her backing off as the conversation seemed to be near drawing to a close. She stopped talking altogether, so far as they could see, then; her back turned to them as she reached for a cabinet above her head, Sheppard then reaching whatever it was she'd wanted in the cabinet for her, in what they supposed was a way of thanking her at least a little for trusting his judgment. She gave him a pained smile as she nodded; the arguing was done.

Her face, usually so pleasant and cheery, was grave and sullen when she returned to them, and her voice the same when she asked Alicia to sit so she could dab the cut with a cleaning solution. She didn't look at the Chancellor when he led Zane out of the room, or prepared to before Alicia grabbed at his hand – that stopped him.

He watched the way Zane handled her; he looked to her with a caring and yet hurt look upon his face, a look that also told her, however, that she wasn't the cause of his grief, which was a part that sent a pang of guilt through Sheppard's body, because he knew who that cause was. He pulled away from the man and kneeled down before her, as – though the man wouldn't know – he'd done when he sat her against the tree in the forest to calm her, linking their hands and intertwining their fingers. The devotion he saw in the both of them…it was as if they would never see each other again save for in death, and even beyond that.

"Don't go." She didn't say it, but her lips moved to form the words, her voice not needed.

"I'll come back." He spoke it in the same way she did – without doing so. His free hand touched the cut on her face as he nodded; she was instructed in that silent manner to let the nurse take care of it, and as he pulled away again, she put forth no further resistance.

There was even more silence as Sheppard took the teen out of the room and into the hall, disturbed only by his whispering on the phone to the head of security, arranging to have them meet them at the front of the school, which would probably not be detrimental from population; no students strayed there. He didn't feel there was anything to be said to the top duelist, and even if there was, he had the cold feeling that it wouldn't be his place to speak it. He had felt a sort of warmth when he watched Zane and Alicia in the room; it had been so long, too long he knew, since he witnessed Zane so close to anyone.

He knew the Obelisk was frozen over and he knew it was his fault, that being the reason his heart wrenched whenever he saw his stoic face, not a line of feeling in his brow usually, and only of the negative sort on those rare occasions when it was not smooth as marble stone. He knew the boy never had many people in his life, and that he knew from having trained him for so many years before he even came to the academy, but that he also attributed to the same. It was always cards, and strategies, and duels for him, always, and among that there was little room for people, even family. Even though his family had indeed pushed his training, he knew that the rift that was so finely chiseled between the teen as a child and the rest of the world was deeper and wider and more ornately crafted than any of them had ever imagined when they encouraged him.

And that was why he felt guilty; he wished he could have shown the boy more examples in the sense of socializing and befriending other people not for the purpose of allying them but for the better reasoning that was he found something intriguing about them that called him to them. But he could show him nothing, because in all, he had made a younger version of himself out of Zane, and that was something he secretly regretted every day of his life. It was true that Zane had become the prodigy of a duelist he was with regards to him, but was that really more important than the emotions that were sealed away as an effect? He may be alone in feeling it, yet he knew in his heart he wasn't, but he didn't think it was worth it, and he wished he'd possessed more foresight in the past where it really mattered. It was too late.

The security was standing in the designated spot when they arrived, punctual as always, and their party consisting of at least ten people, excluding the leader, who stood with a blank look on his face though still managed to radiate the truth of his strength with it. He gave the Chancellor a short nod, not questioning or even appearing to ponder a query as to why the student was with them. It was assumed by said student that he'd already analyzed the situation and knew why he was indeed there, or that he at the very least had some sort of guess about it that was probably as close to the truth as possible if it was any false.

The Chancellor nodded to him as well; they had no use for words between them. He looked to Zane to move forward, as they would all follow suit, and they did just that as he led them onwards. He wondered if they planned to not meet any curious students on the way, for the path was deserted that he could see, and no one was watching as they wondered why security, Zane, and the Chancellor were moving as one party. He couldn't say he wasn't thankful for the lack of general population; it saved him ignoring questions asked of him regarding them later on if and when others braved ask him.

The forest was unwelcoming as they stepped into its boundaries, even with the cool, refreshing air that enveloped them at once upon entering, and he imagined he and Alicia, had she been present, would be the only two people who would find that the truth. That was until those he brought alongside him bore witness to the same scene he already had, of course, and he wondered what their reactions would be. Security probably wouldn't show too much – they must be somewhat accustomed to dealing with these sorts of things, though perhaps that would be a miscalculation on his part as these weren't _police_ as much as they were _guards_ on school grounds. There would probably be a difference, but no matter that, he felt the Chancellor wouldn't fare too well. He was just a duelist – duels didn't prepare anyone for death…he had learned that the hard way, long before this fateful day.

The familiar stench hit him when they neared the site, and once the rest of the group caught it for themselves, the security head turned sharply to face him and demanded where the girl was; he expected him to point, Zane assumed, and he did so for him to see it was forward. With that, the man nodded and paid him no further mind, pulling his own group ahead and telling Sheppard to stay behind with Zane until he came back for them.

"Keep the kid back here and don't say a word. We'll go have a look and come back to ask you what you'd have us do about it."

And then they were all gone. Despite knowing it was an attempt to prevent him from seeing any more of the murder, the dismissive attitude of the man peeved him and he couldn't help glaring, namely when he was referred to as a "kid." Children were innocent, he decided, and after all the death he had seen and all the hurt he had suffered throughout his life, and in his most recent years especially, he was not. That youthful naïveté to pain was gone, taken from him by the cruel hands of fate that he still refused to be a slave to, even with how they had been long since tightening their hold.

Time hadn't passed in such a great amount before they returned, or at least, until the leader returned, leaving the rest to keep surveying the area and look for clues, no doubt. He and the Chancellor spoke then, not saying anything to the student who still stood with them but referring to him many times. He couldn't make out exactly what was being said of him, but he could be sure that he didn't like it; there were no words to voice how disconcerting it was to have yourself be mentioned by people who acted as though you didn't exist – as though you weren't a person like they were. He glared at them, not daring to make his annoyance known by way of sound but determined to display it openly for them to see if they ever did look to him or involve him in their wordy exchange.

And at last the discourse ceased when they both nodded, and both men steered Zane around to begin pushing him out the way they came. He was offended, knowing he could walk by himself back to the school or to wherever the Hell they wanted him to walk, but once again, he knew it would do him no good to complain; that would only offend them and make it worse. They stopped pushing at about a quarter of the distance towards the edge of the woods, but that didn't mean they'd back off of him, and so, his aggravation continued.

The security head didn't follow them beyond that point, which at least took away some of the discomfort. Zane knew it was hypocritical to feel odd in the presence of someone who seemed frozen as ice, for he could very well imagine that was how others felt in _his_ presence, but he still felt that man was worse than he. They started up the path to the school again, no words being spoken for they were lost. Sheppard… he looked like he _wanted _to say something, but at the rate he was going and judging by the look on his face, he wasn't going to any time soon. That was just fine with his student; he didn't need any of his words then, for he knew they would only be hollow shells of promises, as they had been for years.

"Zane…"

After making it back to the foyer of the school without hearing another person's voice, and having temporarily forgotten that there was indeed a person beside him capable of possessing such a voice, he jumped a little, whipping his head around to face the Chancellor. The man looked awkward in his position; near sweating, his brow creased in apprehension, and making every nervous gesture short of twiddling his thumbs. He could barely lock eyes with him.

"Yes sir?" His own voice was foreign; it was colder than he remembered.

"Go back to the infirmary and have your bruises looked at…then take Alicia and go back to your dorms. Security will be moving the body tonight, so no students see it, to the infirmary where it can be examined for clues and evidence, and I certainly don't want you two to witness any more nor speak of it. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." He resisted grinding his teeth; the man lied too much.

He left for the infirmary as he was instructed to do at that moment, and yet as he did, he knew that his intentions would not be in line with his orders. He would allow Fonda to have a look at his marks, however mild they were, but he had no plans to have him or Alicia return to their rooms. The Chancellor wasn't going to do anything about that girl; he was going to cover it up, and he was going to do it the same way he covered up each and every other disappearance and death in the school. He was at least glad that he kept from sighing in vexation as he stepped through the infirmary doors, barely giving them time to open for him.

Alicia rested her eyes on him, sensing his trouble when he sat beside her on the bed and let the nurse look him over. She didn't comment at the time – Zane probably didn't plan on sharing whatever it was with Miss Fontaine, else he would have already said it, but the moment the woman was away from them, humming to herself, or at least trying – her voice was cracked with worry and stress and did nothing to lift her mood nor theirs as she'd wanted it to - she asked.

"What's going to happen?"

He looked squarely into her eyes and put a hand on her shoulder, gaining her undivided attention, and only breaking the gaze once to make sure there was no chance of the other woman paying even the slightest attention. He could tell it worried the girl a little with how forceful he was, but he only told himself he would make it up to her later by telling her everything, yet it was not the proper time to make it known.

"Listen to me; you have to convince Professor Fontaine to let you stay here tonight. Pretend you're very upset about seeing the blood or fake some sort of other injury, but don't let her send you home and don't do anything that would make her give you a sedative. Do you understand?"

She blinked, her brown eyes deepened with confusion. "Why?"

"I don't know what Sheppard told her happened, but he told me that security will be bringing her body here tonight to be examined for evidence. It is my guess, however, that he lied to me and really made plans to get rid of it. He probably told her that we saw the _site_ of the killing and found the necklace on the ground but that the body had been dumped in the ocean, so she will not expect it to come here and will therefore allow you to stay here if you fake a good enough reason. I am going to do some investigating of my own now, and tomorrow we'll meet up. I'll tell you what I know and you'll need to tell me if they ever brought the body here." He tightened his grip on her shoulder. "Do you understand?"

She shook her head, her mouth open in shock. "Cover it up…? Why would the Chancellor…?"

He took her hand and squeezed it. "I promise I will explain everything later – _everything_. You'll understand my reasoning then, but please, will you do this for me?" At her nod, he smiled lightly and stood. "Thank you, Miss Fontaine…"

And then he was gone, leaving the girl in her mild stupor to wonder all the reasons the Chancellor could ever have to justify the covering up of a murdered girl as well as how Zane seemed to _know_ he would indeed hide it. She trusted the Obelisk – that she was certain of, and she would do this for him, but if she didn't receive a valid telling of truths later to account for his suspicion, or if they did actually show up, she would wonder about him and only hoped her trust in and high opinion of him wouldn't wane.

With that thought still in her mind, perhaps the only one left as the nurse approached her again, she allowed her eyes to widen, setting a hand on her temple.

"Miss Fontaine… I can see it…"

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Well, this chapter was just a _tad_ anticlimactic (Can you detect the sarcasm there? Haha) but it's a chapter nonetheless. It might seem a little strange, what's happening, but try to bear with me!

Now, I don't want you all to hate the Chancellor, and his reasoning will come out in the future, I promise, so maybe I'll take those pitchforks now… Hm? They were for _me_? Well…ah…excuse me for a moment…. (I've now officially ran away)

Please review!


	23. Chapter 23

Me: Okay, so I've been in kind of a rut lately, and I have next to no inspiration for…anything at this point. I can't tell why; my muse is on one Hell of a coffee break!

So I can't say how often I'll update…I shall try! But if it's awhile before you see another chapter, I haven't given up on this! I'm just slow!

* * *

Footsteps echoed through the academy's halls, not loud that it would cause a commotion but none too quiet as to be missed by anyone in the surrounding area. There was no one about, no one besides, of course, he whose footsteps were so prominent in the dead silence of the building usually so populated with its student body, and the stillness was not comforting to anything. That was why no one ventured there with not a soul in sight – it was simply too much space to account for and even though they had all been reassured it would never come to pass, there was a far too great a number of places where the unexpected could simply lunge out at them.

The steps were quick in their pattern of sound, making the point that whoever they belonged to rested no foot longer than a split second before pulling it up again – a run, no doubt. Running wasn't off in the school – students ran to classes, to lunch, and teachers to the meeting room to take preferred seats and tea or coffee before their "fellow" staff came to join them and steal it away, however unknowingly and unmeaning to be cruel. But there was no call for any of that – teachers were shut away in their rooms, looking over homework and sorting papers as they planned for their next week of classes at the same time; it was a balancing act, surely. Students, as already mentioned, did not flock at that time – perhaps another look at them, after they had nodded off in the middle of a lecture, would give their offended professor the idea to reconsider his previous actions of ignoring them and instead reprimand them by a failing grade for them, saying mentally they needed to learn with age eventually.

The footsteps were not alone; there was only one set of them, yes, but they were accompanied by pants of air, having long since replaced the breaths of a normal being. They were shallow, these pants, made so from the runner's ability to keep going without straining from any weight he carried, which was limited to virtually none in this case, but even the stoic walls about him could tell he couldn't possibly hold out too much longer – he was never in any physical activity for a reason, and that reason was evident now. Had they eyes, they would have glared as a hand slapped against them when he who was certainly near outdoing his limits dangerously rounded a corner.

_"Ai…it's so far… Were they always this far?"_

He shook his head, whipping his hair out of his eyes in the process as he instructed himself to keep pushing onwards even with the burn coming to his legs. He supposed he could walk the rest of the way, but that was only a passing thought that lasted no longer than a lawn chair in a tornado next door – the rest of his head, including his subconscious, had already cast its vote for speed. It was with that vote that he moved, as he held no argument and only his body did – it couldn't wait. He needed the help _now. _And he surely wasn't the only one.

He thought back to the girl he had left, confused and questioning but having none of said inquiries addressed, sitting in the infirmary bed with a task of her own – to lie to the nurse and stay there for a reason she didn't understand. Of course he meant it with all his heart when he promised to explain later, but he wasn't comfortable entrusting such to her without the explanation; he had no doubt she could do it, but he felt guilty. He felt he was putting too much on her shoulders and not being fair by at least explaining why.

He supposed he should know why he'd done it anyway; he was only too accustomed to the feeling himself.

His brow tensed in anger, his past flooding his mind, and he chose to think no more on the subject until he was forced to. It wasn't helping anyone, he or the girl, or all the others he would do anything to save and return to their own lives. And that he did nothing only hurt – it was irrational and he knew it, and against his core and training, though in his present mind, he realized he was having monumental amounts of difficulty distinguishing one from the other. That was what frightened him; he had spent his years training for a cause and man he had believed in and when he realized it was false, it felt as though those years had been put through a figurative paper shredder of sorts – they were not valuable nor could they be remembered, and only with great strain could they be put back together again. If he weren't feeling so dire, he would have choked out a lifeless, bitter laugh – he couldn't reassemble _anything _of his, could he? It most certainly didn't seem so.

"That…bastard…!"

He couldn't resist hissing the insult even with his breath feeling short and uneven; the man deserved it, and he hoped one day he would be both courageous enough and in the correct position to tell it to his face, for perhaps then he would see the error of his ways and change – finally – for the better. He could become human again – someone with a beating heart who cared about the living and those he knew as anyone should, and someone who didn't look out for himself and his position, view in the public eye – when being cautious interfered with the path of honor and dignity.

He supposed he was nearing his destination – a door like most others he had already passed and only unique in whom it kept behind it, or at the very least, who he _hoped_ was behind it and had not already gone home. Had he, the teen would track him down to the place he suspected he would otherwise be, but he would rather not – that would have him risk involving others if they asked what he wanted of him. There was no surety that all his dreams of answered questions would be fulfilled with his visit, as there was no direct specialist in the field he was to make a query, but he felt he picked the next best thing – someone at least vaguely related to the topic. It was far better than nothing.

And it was with a feeling of relief that he came to the end of the tunnel, as it were; the metal sliding door that did not yet open for him was just bright enough to seem like the illustrious light marking the Gates of Heaven, if one believed in such. He couldn't be sure if he did or did not, but he leaned towards the latter; he didn't like the idea that he was to entrust his afterlife to something he couldn't observe or be sure someone else bore witness to. All those who could possibly answer him were dead, that being the reason they were sure of their fate, and he doubted he would be communicating with them anytime soon, lest he join that séance crew that he'd occasionally seen loitering in the Obelisk Blue lobby. He had no plans to; the way they donned robes and toted around various items for spiritual connection, reciting incantations by candlelight when the clock struck midnight, seemed to be what he would call an "unhealthy obsession," and he wasn't looking for any more of those to add to his reserve.

There was no knocking; the doors slid to each side, parting for him and allowing him to step into the thankfully lit room to begin the next leg of his journey – finding answers. Cerulean eyes, a deeper shade yet dulled in light than usual from emotion that not even he could define; it was sorrow – grief, but at the same time, it was simply blank, that probably accounting for the dullness, locked on a figure some distance before him. He didn't know what to feel so he _didn't_; he shut down what he could of his heartfelt emotion, all subconsciously of course, and let a stoic air pass over him, not freezing his face as it was quite prone to do but managing to seize control of the window into his soul; by that it had lost the battle but won the war.

The man didn't seem to notice him when he first entered; he was sitting at his desk, doing exactly what the student had expected him to be doing – filing, planning, and all the like. It was an easy thing to believe, him being too involved in his work to notice an addition to the life in the room, but something uneasy washed over said addition's nerves; he couldn't settle his mind on that fact. There was something prodding him in his mind, telling him it wasn't as he perceived it to be, and that probing alone nearly had him reconsider his intentions and scurry off to either find someone else or eliminate the "middle man," as it were, completely and go by his own means. Nearly, though, being the key word in the discussion, he stood his ground.

And upon that ground he stood for at least a full two minutes before he fathomed stepping forward to confront the man who played at being ignorant. Fear played no part in his decision to wait, if it had been a decision at all – the thought to move never crossed his mind. Whether that be strange or not with how motivated he had been but moments before didn't matter to him, for he was not in search of another discomfort to ail his mind along with all its other torments. Every ache his body had accumulated by way of his mental status felling it throughout his life – could there possibly be any room for more?

The room's temperature dropped thirty degrees; figuratively it did, for he was the only one to feel it and the scratching of a pen on paper never ceased ahead of him. It was through this – in theory – frigid air that he walked; a slow shuffling of feet that only became what one would label "normally paced" after the first few seconds from its beginning. With every click of his heel he drew closer, and with each he looked to be acknowledged, and without any vanity in the sense. He felt rather ignored – he was only a few yards away, a couple of meters, much less than the miles that seemed to dwell between the two – as the pen remained brushing against the paper and the man's eyes were still locked on that. He didn't wish to have the need to clear his throat when he reached him.

But he didn't after all, and that would have given him a satisfactory relief if he had not been startled by the way the eyes suddenly jerked upwards from their occupation of gazing down, light gleaming off the glasses covering them, as the writing instrument dropped to the desk with the folding of sturdy yet delicate hands atop the same surface, and as it was all done while a calm, cheery smile was printed onto his lips. It was the shift that was unnerving; Banner always did wear that grin, but seeing it carved so quickly into such blank stone was eerie in the least, and that was because he would have doubted it originally possible for him to do it – he stood corrected.

"My boy, what brings you to me today? I would tell you that I do not suspect you of having a mindboggling question about any work of mine, but because I mean not to offend you and therefore send you away, I shall not, after all, tell you such."

Had he been a first year student, he would have blinked at the long and quite unnecessary greeting – he had a vivid memory of doing the very thing at their first encounter – but it no longer fazed him and he shook his head, a way of telling him that it wasn't related to his work. He had finally reached the desk, close enough to rest his blanched hands on it but not intent on doing so – it wasn't that he strove to make a point as much as he wanted to be listened to and understood. The professor was capable of doing that – he may talk quite a lot during his lectures, but he was silent when he need be and that was when someone came to him with a problem of their own. Besides, past him, he had no immediate second place to turn.

"It is not, per se, your _work_, but I do have a question about something that I believe is relevant to your field of study, and so, I hope you can help me. I need to ask you to translate something for me; I'll admit that I'm not sure what language it is, but I truly need the understandable version."

His interest seemed gained, even more so than before. "Ah the realm of languages – many, there are! They each hold such unique places in the universal culture that exists in this world, but that is too little often held dear, and the older ones – ho, I say! But come now, I am getting quite ahead of myself; what might it be?"

He asked for a piece of paper; it was handed to him, slid gently to him across the desk along with the pen that had been recently used, its owner waiting patiently for something to be drafted onto it. For a time it seemed that the hope was a bleak and dismal shadow of one; the pale student neglected to move – to make any crude sketch of a line at all – and his face had grown troubled. His professor, however, did nothing to hurry him along; he had long since learned that it did no one any good to make an attempt, for every reaction was the same, that is they suddenly decided their initial problem was not worth his time. Besides, he had no other place at which he need be – the curfew, the time when he would be expected to make rounds at the Slifer dormitory, was not until later that night.

He felt a surge of confidence in his methods to not react when the writing implement in the slender – if not bony – hand moved to stroke a fine, dark line upon the crisp white paper beneath it, that sole line being the first of many which soon followed suit. He waited in anticipation with no wondering displayed on his cheerfully monotonous features, waiting to be shown the image without trampling on the process of actually writing it. Even when the pen ceased in movement, it was an eternity before the page was revealed even a little for his eyes to scan behind his glasses, and longer still – if there was such a thing longer than forever – before enough was shown to him to enable the reading of the lines, rendering them words instead of mere dashes.

He felt he recognized the line of symbols the very instance he laid eyes on it – it appeared in all simplicity to be a simple Latin word reading "Ugly" in the present lingua franca, but why anyone would wonder about such was unknown to him. The word was conjugated as well such as to belong to a female, and with his mind refusing to believe that Zane Truesdale meant to use such in an insulting phrase to someone who bore two alike chromosomes, he looked at him firmly. There was a mildly quizzical look in his eye but it vanished all too quickly with how the corresponding orbs of blue had dulled in anguish as the flesh about them began to pale with drainage of blood from it. The Obelisk hung his head a little, breaking the gaze that was apparently making him uncomfortable, and yet this time the elder could not bear to stifle his curiosity. He reached out to pat the boy on the hand, offering a peaceful smile as a sort of bargain for the eyes' attention once again. It did him no good; the sole second the blue was in his line of sight was the same it was lost as the hand was snatched away.

"My boy," he told him, truly worried now for such behavior was never demonstrated by his top pupil in any recent events that he could recall – and he could recall much. "What ever ails you? You are so more distant now than I have long since seen you – all for this word?" There was no answer, and he chuckled. "Well frankly, the word does not deserve your respect; tell me, where did you come across this?"

Zane shook his head. "I apologize, professor – I am acting below my age…but I hope you'll stand to believe me if I reveal such to you. It's not the commonly expected method of acquiring anything, I do believe, and yet in all entirety it's the truth – please," he took the phone from his pocket, bringing the gruesome photo to the screen and passing it to Banner before he dared look at it himself, "look here, and there in her chest you can see the writing." The bile in his throat was forced back down again. "Someone murdered her – murdered and maimed her!"

At that point he felt the man's glasses must be glued to his face for the expression he wore upon seeing such a picture seemed to call for their falling off, but he managed to keep any exclamation of his to a mild gasp and looked up sharply towards the student. He didn't doubt him for a second; perhaps if the same scene had been shown him by a – however he felt he should be ashamed to admit it, being who he was – Slifer prone to the most off-color of pranks, he would have received it with anywhere from a grain to shaker of salt, but it was not one of such people. Syrus Truesdale's brother had never been one to tell lies of any sort, excepting those in regard to his own emotions, and most definitely would find it terrible to commit the act when it involved something so... – he put a hand to his mouth – gory to say the least.

A concern for the boy's safety crossed his mind in a flash and he'd made to, quite frankly, blabber something related to such a sense but his tongue was stopped by the words that came from the other's mouth – words he couldn't say he'd wanted to hear, but withstood nonetheless.

"Professor, I think I… I might know who's done this…"

"Know them, by face or name and soul?" he asked frantically, a little guilty with the look his response cast over the pale visage but all too preoccupied to heed it. "Not another student? – the Chancellor has been informed? Why, we must-"

"Sir," he interjected, knowing the man would surely cease in his talking to allow the explanation. "Not a student – at the very least not one that I recognized as a fellow of mine. I do not know him from any experience prior to this day, but I think he has been witnessed – not committing the crime but creeping about." He took a breath. "He was outside my door this morning – _petting _it, as I feel I should tell you. I believe…he is stalking me."

No matter how many times he had already allowed the word to pass his lips, he never was able, and doubted he ever would be such, to utter "petting" without a sort of disgusted sneer etched into his face…and then "etched" would for a time carry a twisted meaning as well, so he dropped the thought. Banner stood, putting a hand on his shoulder and locking eyes with him, however his own still hidden by glass frames. It was not as comforting as it could have been, though decidedly not meant to be, for the Obelisk felt the miniature seas set into his face would evaporate under so intense a stare, but he didn't voice the opinion.

The hand that grasped him clenched slightly as the professor's voice became audible; he had been muttering something from what Zane could tell, but his lack of recognition cause his mind to utterly dismiss it after the classification it underwent, that which labeled it a foreign tongue.

"What did this person look like? If you cannot recall every feature he possessed I will not be displeased; anything you can tell me will aid an investigation to have him apprehended."

He swallowed again, or at least his mind did as he somehow managed to contain himself and return his expression to near its smooth, marble form. "I can't tell you much," was how he began, "but I think he was of average build and height, the latter perhaps leaning to a tad above the usual, and he had very strange eyes – they looked through the skin and body and into the core of the being, into one's deepest secrets and pain. And his mouth was uncanny – when such empathic eyes laid bare whomever was looked upon, it smiled to know the hurt." A sigh passed his lips – a shiver through his body as he pictured the man Alicia had described. "I can tell you for sure, however, that he wore a long, black coat."

At the completion of his spoken portrait, it came as a surprise to the younger male to see that his trusted, and so usually calm, educator was frozen in utter horror; his hand twitched before he drew it back in a flash, clapping it to his collar – and most likely doing so to divert its path to his mouth – and said mouth was opened in shock. He tried to ask if he was all right, for the reaction brought forth in him a supreme nausea that settled in the pit of his stomach, refusing to ebb as it grew worse, but nothing came about. He turned from him, Banner did – gave him a sort of cold shoulder as he appeared to cross his arms in pensive thought.

The teen dared not disturb him, only waited for him to finish whatever one wished to call the mood he was in, not a fit but not a normal action, and wait he did for some time. There was no noise in the room, not even a brushing of Pharaoh's fur against the side of the desk, and surely the cat would be located in the vicinity of his master. It was the first time he'd before beheld anyone so much his senior in the state; even those nearer to him he could count on one hand alone. The amount of worry it took one to reach it, to cross the border that stood as a fence between themselves and blackness, erected for the purpose of their protection, was so extreme as to be undoubtedly rare. Still, he felt not a soul could deny the death of a known person _could_ be considered a motive to force one's way through the fence, but he was withal no less than concerned. Allison's being pronounced dead by the image alone… It simply didn't seem to be what truly unnerved the man before him; he had been revolted, but not to such a reach that it rendered him unapproachable by others about him.

He could barely take the silence – the apprehension was eating away at his mask of a visage, and the crack would only grow to proportions such that he could not keep it from shattering as Banner's nerve had apparently done, but he was relieved when it did not come to pass. The man regained his sanity, a portion of his calm, and he sighed heavily in an attempt to further reclaim such before turning around, at which point his student found the endeavor to have failed. He breathed again – panted really – and then it seemed the diagnosis had been off; he was himself again, aside from the shaking of his voice, yet with concealed anger rather than grief or horror.

"Does the Chancellor know?"

Zane nodded. "Alicia and I informed him after discovering her body this morning, but I did not tell him about the man looking for me. I… I couldn't shake the feeling that I had something to do with the death. Allison and I were…related, so to speak, and so if he holds things in common with many a stalker he would not take to that. If he did kill her, and I believe he did – who else here could have done so? – with nearly all my sense, I wondered gravely if I was a part of it. However, because all I hold are my suspicions, be them strong as they may, I did not wish to excite the Chancellor by telling him about it. Alicia barely glimpsed the man from what she told me, and I didn't want him to go out of his way to worry about something that isn't real."

The other didn't even seem to think it over; he nodded in agreement with "Yes, yes – that was wise" after only a second following the first speaker's dialogue. "I am sure Miss Rayonetto truly saw what she believes she did, but to be safe is much better than the alternative of sorrow. Thank you for telling me this – I will of course honor the secrecy, and include other faculty in those unable to be told. Should the Chancellor find it necessary to inform them, they will learn of it, but if not I will not stand to be the one to alter their state of ignorance."

"Sir, I would like to request moving somewhere else for a little while – until something turns up relating to the man Alicia saw." He said this with an internal quiver, one that he would not dream of allowing to affect his exterior. "With how he was so seemingly well acquainted with the location of my room, and the dorm as he vanished in so speedy a manner, I admit I don't feel safe."

"Ah yes, I should not expect you to – there is never a telling of the extents to which some people will go." As he said this, the listener felt mildly uneasy; the tone, though kind from returning to its normal state again, somehow conveyed to him that the man was not as occupied with his wellbeing as he was with the description of he who might disturb it. "But I would say to live with your brother would be difficult – the room is so small. I can prepare a space for you in my room if you like; that way I will not have to ask about for another location for you, and the situation will be kept quiet."

He agreed to the terms; for him to relay his troubles to Doctor Crowler would be signing his life away – the head of Obelisk Blue would never find the time to let him wander from his immediate sight for a moment, and he was not known to be the secretive type. That was part of the reason he went to the less known instructor in the first place; yes Banner had more knowledge that could help him in regards to the word, but he could have looked that up on the computer. Crowler adored him – he was his protégé, so to speak – and he simply wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut when something involved his immediate – or distant – safety. The entire security force would be alerted, and questioned as to their sightings after each patrol, and he couldn't live with that. He knew he should be grateful, for someone giving such a damn about him, and he was by all means, but those who may be ideal as familial figures are not necessarily so worthy a candidate for confidence.

"Wait a few more minutes – I will escort you to the dormitory."

"Yes sir – thank you…"

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_It was too eerie being within the white walls of the infirmary – too desolate a place to be tolerated when one sat awake in the middle of the night, fatigue tugging roughly one their eyelids as the musing figure fought hard in return to keep them from dropping. She sat in a position that might suggest emotional trauma; her legs were pushed together beneath the covers – white covers – of the bed, knees up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. At an earlier hour they had clung, her eyes looking to the doors every few seconds for she felt she might otherwise miss what came through them, but not at the present, for it was a lost cause. Her loneliness mixed with woe had long since overcome her person, draining the life from her face and leaving it rigid in the darkness._

_She could not find it in her to speak, and if she were more in her mind she would surely have let tears roll down her cheeks, even perhaps but a few; it was two o' clock in the morning and the doors to the shadowy, neglected ward had never once parted. _

* * *

I can't believe this; I'm sorry for the boredom you must feel reading this – I think I can actually promise that the next chapter will be much more exciting. The ball's still just starting to roll, but it's getting there and when it does, it won't be so dull.

And hey, when the dullness ends, my muse might suddenly decide to reenter the scene (He tires easily…)! Thank you to anyone who's read this far and please don't hesitate to review; tell me how much you hate it if you want, but somehow reading those things lifts my spirits…. (Yes, I am exaggerating…)


	24. Chapter 24

Me: So it's a different place that this one starts off in; somewhere on the island but decidedly not in the school as you'll see. The ball………………….IT MOVES! (How strange…?)

* * *

"I should have known better…!"

The voice which expressed the thought was hardly heard, even in the night air. There was no wind to drown it out with greater volume or to disrupt whatever sort of sound wave they could, but the tree branches that brushed against the lone figure as he all but tore through them did that well enough – drown out the sound. The noise made from the trial of forcing one's way through the dense forest took center stage at the late hour, piercing the otherwise silent evening with what would seem to be – if one could not see the figure for the darkness – the sound of an animal scurrying off through the brush. It was not an animal decidedly, as any being who could make out the human form would report, but taking into account the ferocity with which whoever it was moved through the leafy woods, the same beings would perhaps classify them as one. Of course there were exceptions, as proven by the figure in the night, but humans were not so driven as this one; this one was like an outraged beast after prey that had eluded it for hours.

"Such terrible timing aside, I would still be willing to put hands around his throat!"

Disappointment, frustration, anger – all three blended so well with each other at present that the man dashing through the woods couldn't discern which he was feeling the most, though he would suppose it had to be frustration if he were calm enough to choose. Many people would be familiar with knowing that they had tried so very hard to accomplish something and were then forced to face the setbacks that came along with others' mistakes, but he could not identify with any such person because his emotions were too great. To him, this disappointment that spurred his frustration was far more than the natural reaction to missing an appointment because one's friend couldn't keep to the speed limit – or avoid the police who responded – while driving him or her to their destination. This was, in all sincerity, a matter of life and death to him – nothing theoretical about the statement in the least. Should he succeed, he would have life, and should he fail – be it of his own doing or another's – he would be subjected to feeling himself grow weaker and weaker until he at long last went completely limp. He did not want to know that feeling; he had already done so many things to avoid it, and that being said, there was no way he was about to let another person ruin his chances at life with their carelessness. Well, not if he had anything to say about it, and he imagined that he could be quite influential when the need arose.

He could see little in the blackness, only recognizing the familiar form of a branch or trunk of a tree when he narrowly evaded it as it suddenly appeared but a few inches from his face. Even with how lost he would be assumed to feel with basically no sight to aid him in his travels, the blind nature of the journey did not faze him as he had made the trip many times before – too many to count, indeed – and it was in fact more the feeling of running on the specific course through the trees that was known to him – not the features of the leaves or roots about him. One would be hard pressed to find anything unique in the appearance of that particular portion of the wood for anything that may be considered so could be found, most likely, in at least three other locations on the island. After all, the vast majority of leaves were green, moss was by no means a rarity, and there were knobs and hollows in countless numbers of trees.

The feel of the land, however – the mild elevation of a tiny hill that was unnoticed until one's feet passed over it, the mild smell of smoke from the volcano, only noticeable, really, when a person actually took the time to stop, inhale, and consider what it was – that was different. That was memorable.

The man could sense his destination up ahead; there was something about having a lake nearby that alerted him of the upcoming change in scenery. The air was cooler and wetter, though not by a great amount, and even though it would not be expected to have a scent to call its own, what with it being fresh water and thus lacking the perks that came with being the briny waters of the sea, he could smell it. Still, he couldn't say he cared about how he recognized where he was – that would be much ado about nothing considering his presence there was all too regular – and as a matter of fact, he couldn't say much of anything. The two statements he had made aloud previously should consider themselves quite powerful indeed to have conquered his state of mind – to have conquered the flaming emotions that raged within his person. As angry and disillusioned as he was, he couldn't think to form any words or thoughts of his own. Anything that had been said was speech that was in no way connected to his brain; it seemed to belittle the words to label them "mindless chatter," but that was surely an appropriate title – if the word "mindless" itself was dissected and taken literally to mean "without a mind." Whatever he came to call it, it only expressed one thing; how fiery his ire for the one being that had offset his plans was.

He sought that being, even though he felt that the mere sight of him would cause his rage to double if not triple in greatness. Despite the student's account of what she had seen being weak at best, his stomach told him that his instinct was correct in the matter – that his idea of the name and face of the described stranger was without a doubt correct. There was, however, no other way for him to be sure of it than to ask directly, and even if there was one, he would not have chosen it as a method. He needed to exchange words with this person whether they had done as he suspected or not; there were other issues at hand that also presented complications to the originally so simple and thought out arrangement. If he had any say in the matter at all, there would be no failure due to the existence of events that should have nothing to do with his goal or methods of achieving it, but he had to be perfectly sure that his "associates" – if he dared call them that – felt the same. If they did not – if they were not as dedicated as he – then in his opinion, they had no place working with him. If they were not set in their ways and willing to do whatever it took to reach their dreams they were then a possible setback to him as well. How could he trust someone when they could turn on him in their search for an easier way out? He couldn't; that he knew.

Of course, whether he could have faith in any of his other so called associates was a matter for any other time but the present; he would deal with them after he settled the issue with the one person in particular who worried him currently. He suspected that his anger and the strength of it were partially due to his own guilt; he _had_ been one to voice his feeling that the younger man was fully capable of serving the cause. It appeared that he had been wrong, and as much as he hated being so, he simply could not stand being his own undoing. Whatever the man – teen, he should perhaps say instead – did that upset the order he and his peers had would reflect on both his ability to judge people and his leadership skills. Judging from what had apparently happened, it appeared to be that not only was he mislead by a teenage boy – who should usually be so easy to read – but he was also unable to keep his associates in check and had the audacity to think that he did manage them well. He could not be with them every hour of the day, yes, and many times he was not able to make contact for days at a time, but if he were a better overseer, as it were, that separation would have no effect on the operation. For the first time in a long while, he cussed.

"I can't…" When he spoke, he had no idea whatsoever what exactly it was that he couldn't do – believe the youth had been so reckless, allowed himself to be fooled into supporting someone who was decidedly not as controlled as he'd have liked to believe… He didn't know which it was, or if it was something entirely different, but he didn't care. The lack of knowledge wasn't enough to keep a similar start to a sentence, this one adorned with "Damn it" before the pronoun used. Anyone he spent time around would be surprised to hear him utter the slightest profanity, but they would also be shocked to see him anything but completely in control of his emotions. They would not know for sure, but it was a sign of extreme circumstances.

He paid the calm beauty of the moonlit lake no mind as he approached it, nor did he look to it once as he strode quickly over the red carpet that he knew led to the being he sought, or at the very least, to where he _hoped_ he would come to find the being he sought. The thought that the plan he had poured years of his life into was moving along anything less than perfectly was one that released a sort of hypersensitivity within him that caused him to question everything. He had made it very clear to his associates that they were to remain in seclusion within the structure he rapidly approached until the time came for them to exit – when they would finally put their dueling skills to good use. It was true; he would have no way of knowing whether they acquiesced to his orders or not unless he actually made his way to the place to make sure every one of them was present, which they undoubtedly knew he would not do. That being said, they probably left the premises without a care in their hearts whenever they wanted to, and in all truth, he wouldn't care if they had done so with care. There was no adverse effect of their leaving to take a stroll through the forest or to sightsee about the volcano – though he would imagine they had seen enough with how long they had resided on the island – but there _was_ such an effect if they ventured into less isolated territory at poor times in the day.

For instance, appearing before a student's door in late morning was much more risky than wandering along the crater's edge at midnight…

The man stormed up the stairs, yet he was slightly calmer than he had been when he threw branches out of his way in the woods, which was probably a good thing. He couldn't afford to lose his temper with the young man whose face burned in his mind; it did not take a psychologist to see that the teen did not respond well to shouting, and any sort of highly offensive manner would do no more than cause him to retort without answering any questions at all. Nothing good would come of that, but as he reached the top of the stairs and found himself heading towards a door across the foyer, he came to realize that he could only hope for the best because that fire was coming back to him. It seemed that even though he had been forced to take time before meeting with the person, time lost to travel alone, the thought that the operation was compromised before it even begun was enough to stimulate his anger in the same way that it would be stimulated should something else that would negatively impact the plan be brought to his attention.

It was strange; the more he dwelt on it, the angrier he became…

With no regard whatsoever for how the other male would surely react – quite hypocritical of him, actually, considering the situation – he threw open the door that had the unfortunate pleasure of being the final barrier between the irate man and his target to approach the cause of his worry and frustration. He did not know in any entirety what he would have done with himself if he was to not find the person within the room. He supposed he would have no choice but the break something with some monetary value, but he was not faced with the tremendously important decision of which monetarily valuable object to break because the figure which sprang up at his entry was exactly who he was looking for. If he were more at ease, he would have sighed; however the thought of him invoked his emotions, the _sight_ of him did the same as well as donate its own share of fury to the cause.

"What the Hell…?"

He cut him off, even though he didn't really have a sentence formed in his mind; once again, "mindless chatter" reigned supreme. "What were you…? How could you…?" He attempted to take a breath in order to relax at least to the point where he could spit out a full sentence, but his tries were futile. He took two short steps towards the teen, his red eyes flashing. "How _could_ you…?"

The other male blinked, though that couldn't be seen behind the mask he wore over the upper half of his face, but was quickly provoked by the advance and snapped at the man, his defensive nature beginning to take hold of him. "How could I _what, _Amnael? How could I _what_?" He stepped backwards once to put at least some distance between them. "If you're going to come storming in here shouting your bloody head off, you'd best have a damn good reason for doing so, because otherwise…!"

The elder completely ignored the implied threat; it wasn't as though he would be worried if he had listened, as the masked teen had no way of carrying out anything against him. "How could you be so careless?" He was practically shouting at him, struggling to keep his hands from reaching out and wrapping themselves around the brunette's windpipe. "We have not even begun our plan and yet you still manage to disrupt it! What did I tell you?"

"I don't know, what _did_ you tell me?" he hissed back, hearing footsteps quickly approach in the back of his mind. It wasn't a shock that someone was coming to see what was going on; the castle was generally so quiet. "Was to wait for your instruction before any of us went hunting for the damn keys? Was it to not just break into the old man's office and snatch what we need and instead to do it the long way? Because in case you haven't noticed, I haven't done either of those things; you don't see any goddamn keys on me, do you?" He stomped on the floor. "What the Hell is it then?!"

"It was the first thing I told you; do not draw attention to yourself in any way!" He couldn't help it; his arm swung out and struck the closest thing to it, the hapless object being a vase on the end table next to him. It shattered, much like his own life would if he couldn't reach his goal – if this rash teenager undid the operation with his reckless behavior. "I told you to not leave this God forsaken castle! I told you to stay far away from the students on this island! And then what _do_ you do with my instruction? You disregard it entirely and have now been _seen_ by someone! Do you know what this means to us? This may very well dismantle the plan and make our goal unreachable!" He swung his arm again, this time hitting nothing as the vase already lay broken upon the floor. "And so I ask you again; how could you?"

"And how would it do that, Amnael – dismantle our plan? She shouldn't have seen anything; I got out of there, I swear, which makes me wonder how the Hell you know about it! Even if she caught a glimpse of me, it was one woman! One, God damn it – one!"

"And one will tell two and two shall tell four; you see where this is going, no? And you expect me to believe that you saw nothing risky about approaching a student's room in the middle of a Saturday morning? You could not _possibly _imagine someone seeing you there?! Nightshroud, a student saw you…!"

Nightshroud looked taken aback by the accusation – strange to Amnael, considering he had already admitted to being seen – and held up his hands in defense. "Wait; a student this morning? I never went near a student, and definitely not in the morning; you don't think I'm intelligent enough to know that? I said I saw a woman, not some little girl; she was at least twenty-two! Where the Hell are you getting this…?"

"From the mouth of the girl who saw you!" he thundered, barely keeping himself from shaking the teen roughly by the shoulders. "From the mouth of the _girl_ who saw you petting another _student's_ door! However you feel about Zane does not matter; I told you to stay away from him!"

With an extremely frustrated shout, Nightshroud threw his hands up in exasperation; he'd just about had it with the man's theories. "Who the Hell is Zane?! Petting someone's door? That's creepy, Amnael – not how I spend my days! That little girl must be lying because I never went inside any building except this one; I was not there!"

The way he articulated his last four words for once gave Amnael the sense that despite what it appeared to be, the youngest Shadow Rider was indeed telling the truth that he had never been near Alicia or Zane, but to accept that was unsettling. It left too many questions open for the man's liking; who had been at the door that day and who was this woman that the teen apparently saw? He never did take to not knowing things, whether they involved alchemic studies or events in time, and so to find himself in a position where he could be sure of absolutely nothing save himself did much less than wonders for his mood. Still eager to put a face to the man the Obelisk witnessed in the dormitory, he again asked regarding the morning sighting.

"She saw a man in a long black coat with piercing eyes. You insist you were never there. Now tell me why I should believe you!"

"Ah well, there you have it…" The teen pulled on a piece of his own jacket. "This one here is gray, with a dash of green, I might add. Definitely not black…" He calmed himself with the declaration, knowing that he could now be officially "off the hook" for whatever the man was accusing him of, but as long as he had admitted to being out and seeing another individual, he figured he'd address the issue before Amnael started up again. "Besides, I slept all through today. Why? Because last night, I was out at one a.m. watching a twenty-something year old woman and her twenty-something year old friend in the forest."

Amnael calmed as well and sighed, still bothered that the younger duelist had gone near whoever it was he saw; even though it wasn't a student, he had still endangered their plan. "And they saw you…"

He shook his head. "I said one woman saw me, and I don't know the Hell how because it was pitch black. They were in the moonlight and I saw them from way up high in the tree I'd perched in; you know, I _do_ make an effort to keep my presence a secret…" He probably glared with his last comment, but the mask of course kept Amnael from seeing that. He didn't need to though; he could feel the heat. "The one woman didn't see a thing, but the prettier one, her friend; she looked right at me and smiled. There's no way she could have done it, but she saw me, even in the dark. She knew I was there."

"Where was this?"

"At an old building in the forest; it's covered with vines and partially boarded up. I thought there was something about those two, though, and especially the woman who saw me; she had an eerie presence about her, one that I could feel from where I was. She had something in her hand; I couldn't make out what it was, but it was shiny to some extent – a little dulled too. It made me curious, the sight, with how off it all seemed…"

The elder male studied him warily; for some reason, he had the idea that the story was about to worsen, probably because the teen defined himself as curious. "You took a look inside…?"

"No, I didn't; for God's sake, why do you think I'm that childish? After they went in, I came back here and was perfectly content with spending the rest of my evening looking through my deck. I would have, too, if that vampire woman didn't take it upon herself to demand I tell her what happened while I was out; she's got a sixth sense that tells her when something's the least bit wrong." He sighed. "She was hounding me, and assuming the worst – like you. Finally I told her, just to appease her so I could hurry off to be by my lonesome, but she decided the matter needed investigating. And so there I was going back."

Amnael felt himself becoming angry again, this time because Nightshroud had returned to a place where he could be recognized all because he simply couldn't bear to deny everything and walk away from Camula – and the part about him not feeling he was childish when he hadn't been mature enough to ignore the woman only worsened the feeling. He wondered briefly if the teen even knew he was contradicting himself. "So you went. Go on."

"It was two in the morning; I assumed there would be no one around or awake inside the place. Still, we watched from a distance. I can't tell you why, but she thought there was something we were missing about the people in there. She wanted to know what was going on inside – notice, not me – and sent in one of her bats; she said she could see with their eyes…or something to that effect as I didn't care to listen. She bothers me in the same way that woman did, after all." He brushed a strand of brown hair away with a hand. "We were there at least an hour and didn't once see the thing. I told her I wasn't going to wait around for it, but she wasn't going to leave it there. She loves those disgusting little things." He saw how the other looked for him to continue with how he leaned slightly closer and raised his eyebrows – while still managing to glare at him – and shrugged. "I left. When I looked back, I didn't see her. I guess she went looking for her pet."

Although the story exonerated the teen, it did nothing to alleviate the still frustrated man as he now had another person to whom he needed to give a stern talking, but he tried to compose himself. Camula was the most dedicated member of their organization, he fathomed, even more dedicated than himself. While he had his own life to preserve, she strove to revive countless numbers of wrongly executed vampires from her past during times long ago. He had never expected her to be the one to endanger their cause, and certainly not by wandering into a building that was definitely inhabited – however strange and curious that was – in search of one bat. She had hundreds of them that would rally to her side whenever she wished; what was one? Apparently one was a lot, at the very least to her, and that was a thought he would hope to rid her of. It didn't help them to have someone so bound by such a little thing.

"Where is she?"

He had meant it to be a simple, unimposing question; for the first time that night, it didn't imply that Nightshroud had done wrong and was, another first, not rhetorical in its nature. However, the question had the greatest impact upon the young duelist when compared to any other words that had passed between them that evening. The younger of the two became startlingly quiet, as though he had just come to realize something terrible had happened, but could not speak of it because he didn't quite believe it. It was difficult to tell what his exact emotions were because the windows into his soul – his eyes – were as concealed as they ever were by the bluish glass of the mask he wore, and truly at the time, the fact that the mask was responsible for hiding his feelings made Amnael want nothing more than to remove it. He knew he would never – no one had dared even try to take the mask from the teen's face – but the idea was tempting; if the other did not speak, he would have no way of determining what came over him. He would have no way of knowing what now had gone wrong. As he had stated previously, he hated not knowing. He made to ask again, perhaps in a more direct way that addressed the young man's reaction to his first question, but he did not have to; the short response that came was more than enough to assure him of the worst.

"She never came back…"

* * *

Oh…I get the feeling that the idea of this chapter was poorly executed…but I guess I'll have to run with it. I hope the next will be a much better read, if you all have managed to stay afloat with me through all of this… I promise, the ball really is rolling! (Haha, maybe a bit too fast – like this chapter!) I think this one sounds rushed…

Please review! I'm sorry for writing so oddly (At least, that's how it seems to me…) and for dwelling on things. (How strange; I dwelt on things here too long and yet the chapter still feels rushed… I'm contradicting myself, aren't I?)

P.S.: I didn't really know where the Shadow Riders lived while they were on the island, as they never really said, but I assumed that they would band together until they started dueling...and getting picked off by our canon heroes. That being said, I put them in the castle where they find Camula in episodes 31-33. Call me unimaginative.... haha


	25. Chapter 25

So I'm finally updating! (If you can believe…) Well, I hope to update more quickly now that my college applications are done, with my life being more on track and open (at least, I hope it is…) And I'm done naming all the chapters (my titles were awful and clichéd anyway) so I've erased all the names...yay!

I hope you enjoy the chapter; I don't like it much, but don't I say that every time...? Haha; thank you for reading!

* * *

It was dark. Even for someone as accustomed to living in and amongst the night as she was – someone whose closest companions were beings of shadow themselves – there was nothing further she could say about where she found herself. There was a sense of timelessness in the blackness, more than simply the fact that she didn't recall how long had passed since she'd come in; it was as though the cold breezes that blew here were not of the same make as those outside. Nothing was; it was not bound to any other earthly presence but stood on its own, and as fantastic and potentially fair that may seem, it was positively eerie.

And for her to admit that was truly a statement.

It was odd, though – how long she had been wandering in the darkness. When she had first decided to venture into the building – whenever that was – it hadn't seemed to be so daring a task. It was a solid, simple building from the outside, with four walls and a roof, mainly, and so naturally it should have limits to the size of its interior. But as she stepped as quietly as she could manage along in what she assumed was a hallway, she had no sense of such limits. The trail of shadow and blackness knew not the meaning of the word – limits, that is – nor had any sort of light at the end as she'd heard the dark trails of many tales had. Personally, she never understood the metaphor; it all seemed too optimistic for her taste. As one who had fought through the perils of her time only to come up with nothing but a sorry necklace and a cast of haunting memories, she had the right to critique the saying. After all, there was no light at the end of her tunnel…so to speak.

"…"

She had been about to utter words for the first time in hours, but she held herself back with a simple reminder that she had no idea where she was or who was about her. Even though she couldn't see a face or figure in the distance, she felt one. It was strong, flooding her senses and causing her to occasionally whip her head around in all four directions to find absolutely nothing each time. That confused her and she never became used to the feeling; how could something so potent be nonexistent? She was generally able to detect things no human could – a perk of her race, she could but didn't call it – but that also meant she could see them too, and she saw nothing. Of course, there was only the sense of someone's presence that had her believing there was something to see; it wasn't that she heard the sound of footsteps beside her own, and she certainly didn't feel watched. With a shake of her head, she tried to dismiss her wonder, telling herself that it did her no good in satisfying the reason as to why she'd come in the first place. She failed again, the wonder stayed.

The more she wandered in the darkness, the more she was nagged by the knowledge that she couldn't see through her bat's eyes for a particular reason. It was simple, really; she could always see by ways of a bat unless something had caused the bat to be unable to see itself. Considering the strange place in which she found herself, the creature was probably dead… She hated to think like that – no matter how off it seemed to her accomplices, she loved those things – but she felt that if she didn't happen upon something soon she would have to accept the fact and try to find her way out instead of deeper in. It wasn't as though she'd found her pet at all. She hadn't found anything, to be exact, let alone something alive. The most solid, real things she came into contact with were the two walls at her sides, framing the hall, and she didn't touch them much. For a reason she could not explain, it appeased her to feel unattached to the natural world. Perhaps the troubles of recent times were weighing on her more than she'd originally thought they would.

It was specifically the topic of reviving her race that caused an uneasy feeling to settle in her stomach, which surprised her because it was a plan she'd had for centuries now. It all seemed so simple when the old man presented his offer to her – that he would give her means to accomplish her goal in exchange for her services. She hadn't thought there would be a single regret for her when the deal was made; she was not the least put off by the idea of taking souls to give life to the deceased. But the more she considered it the more unsure of herself she became, unsure if taking innocent lives was what she wanted – was right and fair. And the further she delved into this darkness the worse that lack of certainty became. Was this what their souls would see…? Nothing but an endless plane of shadow…it all seemed too much. It was true; her people had been innocently slain, but the principal of "an eye for an eye" didn't appear to have a place in the situation as she believed it had years ago. These human souls who she may force to pay the price of others' wrongdoings were just as innocent as her own kind had been, and to condemn them suddenly didn't make the sense it had to her when her ire was first invoked. For the first time she was considering the possibility that she jumped to a too easy and quick conclusion – that she made the wrong choice.

Her reflective thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching from the opposite end of the hall and she fell against the wall, feeling for any sort of escape before she would be invariably seen – a door, perhaps even a window. It took her some time – time she didn't know she had previously for how close the clicking of heels already seemed to be – but her hand ran over the familiar round structure of a doorknob and she twisted it to open the door just a crack. It was just a large enough space for her to slide in, for she had no desire to open the door to the point that whoever neared her was able to see it in the distance. While she couldn't see in the darkness herself, she was not naïve nor egotistical enough to assume that that meant all others could see no better than she. There was no way to tell from where she stood how keen the other individual's eyesight was, and it would do her more good to overestimate it than not when it came to caution. After a few more moments, she drew in a shallow breath and sighed.

The footsteps stopped.

No longer hearing someone coming towards her would have given the woman comfort in any other set of circumstances, but the moment she heard a rather recognizable squeak, her pointed ears twitched and she drew dangerously close to the door, opening it a little to better hear the sound. As it turned out, she didn't have to. What had been a tiny mewl had become a shrill, paralyzing shriek by the second time the creature made noise, and she knew in an instant that it was indeed her lost bat that had called…for something, not her, surprisingly enough. Usually she perfectly understood her pets – at least had a general knowledge as to what they meant to convey. But she could not make out a single thing from her bat's screams as they continued, other than the creature was in severe pain, and with a twitch of her eye from the terribly high pitch she opened the door further. As unwise as it seemed for her to attempt to confront whatever it was that was ailing her pet, she felt she had to do it; whether it was maternal or merely protective she did not know nor care to ponder. Hearing the awful noise sent chills down her spine and ignited a fire within her. Even if it was not human…the amount of pain she sensed in her bat's form was such that no creature deserved, and judging by the consistency of the shrieks, the suffering was ongoing. She knew for sure someone was torturing it, and as she stepped back out into the hall as quietly as she could…she had no idea as to why.

The woman hadn't taken more than three steps forward in the hall before a shooting pain flew through her head and she faltered in her stance, leaning against the wall again and placing a hand to her temple. The initial sharpness of the pain seemed to crackle and expand into a throbbing, swollen feeling, threatening to fracture her skull as it surely wasn't large enough to accommodate what it now held within it – as illogical as she knew that was. She didn't know what was happening to her – nothing had drawn close to her, she heard nothing, but somehow this incredible pain managed to seize her. Pain such as this did not appear out of thin air, even air so heavily drenched in ill aura as that about her was, but she was too affected by the pulses in her head to think about what caused it. Her vision blurred and shaking her head did nothing to restore it – it only worsened her condition, in fact, and if she were well enough she would have chided herself for the foolish thought in the first place. If she could call it a thought, that was; she could be sure it wasn't one. It hurt too much to think. However the second time her vision was distorted, it was not mere cloudy images that she saw, no. She saw another person standing in the hall, though she was spinning in a lighter room than the hall she had been in for the past however long amount of time, and despite the pain, she allowed a thought to strike her that worried her further.

_"Someone is…trying to see through my eyes…!"_ She bit back a squeal as the pain intensified and strengthened her mental barrier against the outside force. Her bat's torment… No doubt it was the result of being used to see what she saw. Realizing this, she locked her eyes on the darkest part of the pass she could find – not but blackness. Clearly whoever dared try and read her mind was trying to figure out where she was, and she refused to aid them by looking at anything that could be recognized.

No matter how she tried to find the strength to push onwards, she found herself falling back into the room she had temporarily ducked into earlier. Her entire field of vision was turning uncontrollably and she couldn't determine what the forms in the room were, but to the best of her ability she guided herself around them and to the back. Her eyes were burning red, she knew that without a mirror, and quite honestly they felt ablaze. No matter how she strove to close them it seemed impossible to do – her mind would not order her body to do it, and she was sure it was the doing of that woman she saw through her bat's eyes before her sight failed her. She was tired; it was too dangerous to fall unconscious in this place for if she were not awake she could not intentionally avoid the other people in the building. But her body lowered itself to the floor nevertheless, behind one of the unidentifiable structures in the room, and feeling that she had no choice but to give in she pressed her face and still wide-open eyes to the floor, feeling blackness overcome her like a fog.

"…merde…"

-----

Truthfully speaking, Alicia had gathered herself, said goodbye to Miss Fontaine, and headed out into the hallway of the school before she even knew she'd opened her eyes. There were too many questions circling about in her head for her to notice what she was doing – though she managed to thankfully keep from making contact with anything or anyone as she wandered. Everything that had happened the day before didn't seem real, despite having appeared before her. It was enough to swallow that an unknown individual murdered a student on the island – someone she had spoken with that very year – but adding Zane's distrust of Chancellor Sheppard to the mix produced quite the lethal cocktail for the mind, and her brain had drank indeed too much of it. A part of her didn't believe Zane would – could – actually explain everything to her, probably because the same part argued that he didn't know himself. His accusations were threatening to the bald man who headed their school and in no way minor. They could prove fatal to his career if anyone found them to be the slightest bit true, but her fellow student had thus far said nothing of a basis for such claims.

She wanted to trust Zane – if she couldn't, she couldn't trust herself – but this one began to seem unsteady hours ago and the longer she thought about it the more confusing it became.

It never truly occurred to her that she had no idea where she was going, nor did it that she had every right to blame Zane because he hadn't taken a moment the night before to tell her where they should meet in the morning. Despite not being fully in touch with what was happening about her, that in itself being an understatement, the thought of reporting the absence of Allison's body to the elder student made her nauseous. She hated to think that the chancellor was covering something so important as the death of one of his students, but for some reason Zane had it set in his mind that he was – covering up, that is – and she would no doubt spend the next hour being briefed on as to why. Actually, taking into account the amount of information she had been given up to this point, it may be unwise to assume it would even take an hour with Zane to be told "everything." After all, he seemed keen on informing her sparingly; he said as little as he could manage without her questioning him, and should she – question him – he would simply brush it off and promise to tell her later, as he'd done this time. But she worried; she knew he was doing it for one or both of two reasons: one, he couldn't truly admit it to himself and was stalling to settle his own mind, and two, he thought it would do more harm than good for her to know. Considering how she had handled the murder scene itself (and truly, the thought of it) he may feel it would only frighten her…and she wished her overwhelming curiosity and worry for him would allow her the opportunity to find him correct.

But the emotions would not ease. There was no doubt about it; she would request he reveal everything, if he did not immediately do so without prompt.

"Alicia."

The voice startled her and she jumped accordingly, her head snapping around to focus her brown eyes on teal ones – hardened teal ones. There was a flicker of worry in his eyes when he saw her, and after a moment – what she assumed was spent taking in all of her appearance – the stony glaze was lost and he put a hand on her arm. She guessed her eyes were red and her skin purple beneath them. After all, she had been awake until at least three in the morning while she barely moved, staring into space, and the fact that he couldn't pull his gaze away from her eyes was a large clue in and of itself. If it were a normal morning she would have tried to smile and assured him not to worry for her, but it was not such a morning and with fatigue and confusion eating away at her she did her best not to fall into him in the public setting in which they were. Apparently though she could not keep herself from swaying slightly for Zane moved his hand from her arm to her upper back and began guiding her away from where they previously stood and, if her internal compass were not spiraling as it was, towards the Girls' dormitory.

She took the silent hint not to speak of the morbid topic while they were still amongst other students, even the small handful that was about, but it was a tempting mistake to make. She understood perfectly – the risk of having someone overhear and spread the news about the school was much too high to ignore – and tried to figure why she was so eager to tell of what had – or rather, hadn't – happened the previous evening. It was probably something she wished to get off her chest, that was what she settled on telling herself, and perhaps she also hoped for something reassuring to come from the other Obelisk's mouth. However a blind hope that was; as sure as Zane already had been of Sheppard's guilt, he would have nothing positive to say once she informed him of the man's latest action. She knew she would support him in any decision he chose to make; Zane did generally know better than her, in any case. But Alicia still wished that that decision would not be too extreme. To most of the population at the school, the teen was a level-headed, stoic thinker but she had seen the emotional, irrational side of him on more than one occasion, and though she had a better idea than anyone else, she still didn't know the limits of it.

She would rather not find out.

Somehow the walk to the dormitory seemed shorter than her mind knew it truly was, however in her current state she was surprised she even noticed. It was a path so often taken by her but at the moment it could have been an entirely new route to an unknown location; the trees that grew everywhere alongside them and what should be familiar bumps in the road were as exotic as the rainforest. It was most likely because there was a sense that she had never walked these roads before, at least not the _true_ roads. She had travelled over the paths to the dormitory countless times, but she had never done so knowing what she currently knew about the school and the island, and thus about the paths themselves. She hadn't thought about the mysteries of the island before nor did she imagine the works of the chancellor. Alicia was sure that she'd been fonder of the place when she had been blissfully ignorant. When she hadn't been presented with the mysterious and dark happenings of the school, the white stoned building before her was a bright and wonderful castle of a place to live, but at present…it was rather suffocating.

Zane did well in maintaining a relatively normal expression as they walked briskly up the stairs, not drawing any attention to them. Of course one could argue that having a male in the Girls' dormitory was something to draw attention in and of itself – and the top student at the school, no less – but for some reason the level of interest in him was not as high as would be expected. A few girls in the lobby looked up from their friends to watch the pair go by, and an even lesser number of them waved or spoke some sort of greeting, but for the most part they were ignored. That was fine by both; the last thing the two Obelisks needed was to be pestered with questions or otherwise distracted from their current goal (whatever that may be, as Alicia would say). Still, Alicia could not particularly say she was glad when the door finally closed behind them as they made it into her room. She would have answers to at least some of her questions, yes, but that would make the suspicion that the chancellor was neglecting his civic, moral duties as school head and a human all the more real. If Zane didn't tell her any reason for his concern, she could pretend that he was being paranoid; she feared being convinced. If she started to believe it herself, there was no more uncertainty to hide behind, and this was not a problem she wanted to confront.

She didn't want Zane to confront it either, but she had no control over his actions.

"Zane…" It was the only word she could get out of her dry mouth, and if she could think about it she would wonder if she'd actually planned to say anything else; most likely not.

He looked at her expectantly and she knew what he wanted to know, but for some reason she couldn't produce the sound…or muster the courage to start the topic herself. The elder student appeared to know what ailed her and sighed, putting a hand to his head and debating how to ask. She had the feeling he was troubled not because he had to ask but because he already knew the answer, as apparent as she was decidedly making it, and though she wished to ease his mind, she didn't do so much as move. If she blinked, she didn't notice.

"I gather…" he spoke softly, lightly chewing on his bottom lip – out of nervousness or disappointment, she couldn't tell. "That the… That Allison never made it to the infirmary last night…?" She froze on the spot, unable to manage a single word, but she nodded her head once – very slowly. He didn't react at first, but with the tension she felt in the room Alicia didn't dare take a breath. Ironically, when he spoke she found the will to, despite the word being "Damn."

Alicia wasn't surprised by how disturbed the male teen was by the news – anyone would be – though she had to privately admit he was more concerned than she'd originally expected; he did, after all, suspect this all along. But her lack of amazement did nothing to detract from her worry, an emotion that had been growing uncontrollably inside her since the night before. She didn't appreciate the silence that had fallen since Zane heard the news, and her discomfort only grew as he guided her over to the bed and sat her down without a word. He turned back around and that was it for her; he promised answers, and she wasn't about to let him leave without giving her any. She understood perhaps why he was doing this – he was trying to protect her – but it was no use; she needed to know…before he did something drastic. She wanted to contribute to his planning so he wouldn't act too impulsively…however a blind hope that was.

And so she sprang forward, one foot making it to the ground while the other was forced rather uncomfortably beneath her, to snatch his arm in a hurry, tugging him backward to keep him from leaving as he was about to. He jumped a little at the rapidity of her movements but did not appear at all surprised that she had made them and waited for her to speak, which did not take long. She didn't know what to say so she said everything, and she only hoped everything was better than nothing because she had no other options.

"Wait!" she snapped at him, watching his stoic expression remain completely intact. "You…you promised you would explain all this to me; you said if I told you what happened at the infirmary you'd tell me why the Hell you suspect our chancellor of…of covering murder! That was your promise and I'll be damned if I let you walk out of here without keeping it!" She paused for a second to catch her breath. "I know what you probably think; you don't want to trouble me with it. But I'm already troubled, Zane – too much so to not have you tell me what's going on. I know time is of the essence here, but I also know that acting completely alone impulsively because there's no one else who knows enough to help you isn't the way to go about this! As much as you may like to deny it, you need other people with you on this one, even if no one could know better than you. So you're going to tell me what's what so I can be one of them!"

The commanding quality to the girl's request was unexpected for both parties, and with a wince and a sudden softening of the eyes Zane's expressionless visage faltered. He blinked at her and took a seat next to her, waiting for her to sit down again herself while biting his lip with more force and nervousness than he had previously. She caught him; he regrettably had to admit that his intention was to hurry out of the room before she noticed he'd moved so he didn't have to inform her, but knowing that only made him feel guilty. She was just trying to help, and as much as he could try to deny it, she _was_ helping him – _had been _helping him – and he undoubtedly owed her at the very least a small explanation. Avoiding her expectant brown eyes, he sighed.

"I'm sorry." The voice was soft – near whispered – as hers was when she responded that she knew. "I've never been…particularly good at trusting or helping others…or letting them do the same for me. For me that's always worked; I never regretted not letting anyone in…or I guess I never had a reference to draw an opinion from. I always felt that if I flew solo on everything, then if I was wrong…I wouldn't take anyone with me. I would be wrong and that would be that, but it wouldn't affect other people." He sighed again. "That's why I didn't want to tell you any of this; if I was wrong about Sheppard, I didn't want you to mistakenly distrust him as well. I thought it'd be better that way."

She nodded. "I had a feeling that was it, but you know that people will follow you to whatever end; right or wrong, they'll be with you, and they won't blame you for what happens. I mean…" There was a pause; the teen tried to think of how to phrase the next part. "…what about Atticus?"

Zane inhaled sharply, and Alicia knew she'd hit a nerve, but she didn't withdraw and waited for a response. He gave one. "Atticus…well, for one, we were friends before I stopped letting people in. It wasn't that long ago that I…" He neglected to finish that sentence, which sparked Alicia's curiosity, though she had the feeling it was a sore topic.

"Does what happened to Atticus…have to do with this – not trusting Chancellor Sheppard?"

For some reason, Zane allowed a humorless, pained chuckle to pass his lips. "That's it – all of it, really. See…" He chewed over this comment for a moment before continuing. "It wasn't just Atticus who disappeared. He was part of a whole group of students who went to the abandoned dorm…and never came back. Security – the guards we saw yesterday – they reported looking all over the island but supposedly found nothing. That was over a year ago and they've never found anything to tell the families. I've seen Alexis every day, Alicia – always searching and waiting for her brother to come home. And now with the chancellor hiding Allison's murder…" He stopped. "How am I to know if…if they haven't found the other students – if they haven't found Atticus' body? I can't know; I can't bear to guess… All this time I've wanted to believe that he'll make it back someday, but if he never will – if there's the possibility that he never will because he's…" He sucked in a breath. "It's been hard waiting for him when I was relatively sure he was alive, but now I can't do it. I don't want to be caught in this cycle of pain and empty hope anymore; I don't want Alexis endlessly waiting for something that won't – can't – happen. It's not fair." The pitch of his voice was rising – clearly he was becoming more upset as he thought about the blonde girl. "It's not fair for…that man to keep her hope alive when he knows there's no point to it! If Atticus is… If he is, I won't keep my mouth shut and watch her suffer – I refuse to. She's too young to have her years wasted by this and I know it's been too long already. I want her to be able to move on. I want her to begin to heal."

Alicia considered what he said and smiled sadly, resting a hand on his shoulder while she wiped away a single stray droplet of water from the edge of his eye. "I understand…and I will support you; you know that, I'm sure. I wish you wouldn't do anything to further hurt yourself, but I have faith that you'll do what's right."

"I need to see Alexis. I need to explain everything to her…"

The brunette smiled again and shook her head. "You, right now, just think about what you're going to do next. Before you try to explain it to her, sort it out for yourself. I'll tell her you need to see her tonight…"

"At the lighthouse…"

"…at the lighthouse." She paused for a moment. "I know you don't trust yourself but…I do trust you, and Alexis does too. Your intentions are noble, and I know that there's no wrong you can do with them. You'll take care of Alexis – you always have; just make sure that you take care of yourself too. And I'll be here when it's done; you know whenever you need a shoulder, I've got two."

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Again, I thank you for reading this here chapter of mine and this story, and I truly hope to update soon (much sooner than the last time...). Please don't hesitate to review or give suggestions; those just light up my soul like a Christmas tree, and I have a tendency to update faster....I think. (Haha - I hope I'm not lying...I don't mean to)

Oh and yes, I know there's absolutely no source that says Camula is French, but I wanted her to say something there and somehow I couldn't picture her saying "shit"... I don't know, it just didn't seem like her to me (Of course being that merde means shit, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense...) but at least I'm basing the seeing through her eyes thing off something canon... (Cue innocent smile)


	26. Chapter 26

I'm so sorry it took me so long to update this; I apologize as profusely as I can! I've been busy this last year getting ready to graduate from high school, but now that it's summer I hope I can update much more quickly for this story as well as my others!

Thank you very much, anyone who continues to read this! I truly appreciate it, and I would love any further reviews from you! :D

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The girl didn't take her eyes off him – never once looked to the clock as a way of reminding herself just how many hours it had been since she'd slept, but Zane knew he was keeping her awake. It truly wasn't difficult to tell – her eyelids drooped every so often – but he could tell that despite that, Alicia wouldn't want to be reminded of how tired she was; she was doing her best to combat her own body's needs in order to support him, after all, and it would be cruel to tell her that her efforts failed. He appreciated her understanding, actually couldn't quite express how much, but didn't want her to so blatantly inconvenience herself. He knew without much thought that following him was difficult at best – it often occurred to him that he didn't deserve it, putting others through hardships with a minimal reward if any at the end.

For a brief moment, he wondered if he was any fairer than the chancellor.

Yet even with the guilt he felt quickly spreading through him the longer he regarded the tired girl, he didn't want to leave. His mind shouted at him from more than one direction: one side came directly from his guilt, accusing him of selfishly holding onto this girl who'd clearly exhausted herself already for him – the other, perhaps a more practical and calculating side of him, did not concern itself with anything save his original intentions to deal with the situation. It spoke the truth, undoubtedly; he could not solve this mystery of Chancellor Sheppard's actions by sitting in the dormitory – he had to go. However though the two sides were more than enough to trouble him with each moment he remained seated on the bed, he still couldn't budge. Looking at Alicia paralyzed his form, save for his hand which was beginning to shake.

It was only a minor trembling at first, the tremors near completely absorbed by the blankets on the bed that they were impossible to detect. He wasn't aware of it himself to a great degree, but when he did at long last notice he wished the girl beside him wouldn't notice the same. He had no way of explaining himself for even if she only asked about his condition – if he was all right – he didn't know how to answer. He figured he would find something to say as he generally did, of course beginning with how he was perfectly fine so as to not worry her, but somehow his method didn't seem to be as effective as usual. For the first time, he was beginning to think over his state of being as of late. The cold, distant persona he crafted for himself was meant to impress upon others that the strength within him existed beyond his title as Duel Academy's champion, but it appeared to be increasingly ineffective. The further away he drew from emotion, it seemed, the more emotional he became, and the more his steadiness faltered. He hated to think he'd been his own undoing – that he had made himself as unsteady and unsure as he presently was – but it was harder to deny the more he refused to allow others to aid him – to understand.

"Zane…?"

The trembling had grown too violent to be ignored further, decidedly, and with the caution Alicia displayed in both her expression and the slow speed at which her hand reached to touch his, Zane had to consider that the girl probably noticed his condition earlier and simply didn't know how to approach it. Had it been most of anyone else, he was sure he'd have drawn his hand back and tried to cover for it – think of some awful excuse that would only pass because the other party realized it'd be fruitless to press the issue. With this girl, though, he partially surprised himself by not doing so and actually turning his hand over to faintly take hers. She didn't ask him why he'd done so – didn't ask why he didn't look to anywhere save her eyes as he did it. It may have very well been that she already knew why, or at the very least had enough of an idea to not wish to know further; he considered this. Yet what he believed to be the true reason was more practical and less guesswork than the two earlier thoughts had been – the shaking stopped.

She chanced a few words, not wishing to upset him again but feeling she had to say something. His eyes were beginning to glaze over and she had to keep them from continuing for those eyes were telling her he was losing focus rapidly. She wanted his mind to be at ease, and if allowing him to forget the workings of their world for a few moments would ensure that then she would not have spoken at all, but she knew enough to be sure it wouldn't do Zane any good to forget at this point. He'd spent over a year of his life already forcing himself not to think – not to allow his brain to ponder why his world continued to turn and break apart in the ways that it did. Ignoring the issue hadn't bettered his situation, and in fact it, from what she could tell, had only caused him to craft icy walls about himself and deny others access, even those who wanted nothing more than to help him in whatever way they could manage – those who only wanted to see him smile again.

Alicia could feel their distress. She was among them.

"You're going to be all right, Zane – I know. Whatever you'll do, you'll do exactly what you need to right this for Alexis…and for yourself too."

His eyes cleared, losing the hazy element to their gaze as the girl spoke to him. In all honesty, her words were not a great deal different than those she'd said before, but perhaps it was because of that – repetition – that he was having quite the time keeping his intentions from her. He'd never envisioned informing her on what his current plan was, and he'd never dreamed of reconsidering for each time he told himself it was for her benefit – that she didn't need to know and would be better off without the knowledge of it. But for whatever reason now, perhaps her continued support of him and perhaps not, he couldn't contain the guilt he felt for not telling her. Each blink of her tired eyes and every tiny reassuring squeeze of his hand sent a twinge to his heart and wore on the willpower holding back his words. If he weren't before her – if she were not watching him so intently – he'd have shaken his head with the dilemma, but because he was, he could do nothing more than allow the last shred of will keeping his mouth shut to collapse.

Ironically, the sense of relief that filled him when he did so was enough to have him wonder why he didn't tell her long before.

"I'm…going to see Chancellor Sheppard."

The younger Obelisk blinked when she heard him and, judging by the amount it time took her to answer and the widening of her eyes, she was surprised by his openness. He understood completely for he was surprised himself at first, but what he hadn't expected was the speed of her recovery. She gathered herself, refrained from gaping, and nodded once slowly to him in order to focus on the importance of what he'd told her. His plan – what she could figure from his five-word sentence – was the most direct action she'd seen him take in…perhaps her entire time of knowing him, and she only hoped he'd thought it through to some degree. It was like Zane to be prepared – that sense of obsessive organization had been what brought him to the top after all – but regrettably or not Alicia felt the teen who worried over the chancellor's integrity was not the champion who took center stage at the academy. This teen, while to her of no less a mind than his counterpart, was overall driven by emotions rather than practicality and any pragmatism he did possess was easily overcome by worry and the noble desire to protect those he cared about. It was honorable, such devotion to righting wrongs for the sake of others' wellbeing, but it had its drawbacks, and the painful scenes which unfolded before Alicia were examples of them.

"Do you think he'll explain to you?" she asked, attempting to choose her words carefully. She probably didn't – never was much for saying the right thing as far as she could tell – but it was the best she could do.

He sighed. "I… I can only hope he won't lie to my face, but in all truth, I don't know. You know…" He nearly stopped himself – nearly. He'd never told anyone of his past with the man before, save Atticus (who strangely knew on his own, actually). It wasn't that he was ashamed – there was nothing negative about it; it was only that it'd require him to be more open with another person than he generally was. "…Sheppard and I have known each other for years; he was my mentor in dueling when I was still in grade school. He and I built the Cyber Dragon deck together…" He paused. "I have to hope that after all we've done together – all we've shared and built – that he _can't_ lie to me… I have to hope he's not cast aside the honor and respect he spent so long teaching me…"

She took a moment to process what he said to her but decided she wouldn't spend too much time thinking it over while Zane was still needing her advice, even if he didn't necessarily admit to it. History wouldn't change no matter the present or future, and so if she needed she could take any time ahead of her to ponder the story. "Do you want me to come?"

He shook his head though half-consciously squeezed her hand as a way of conveying her offer was appreciated. "No; you need to rest…" There was a pause. Alicia didn't expect him to want her to tag along when he went to see the chancellor – she'd only asked to be supportive in truth yet would go if requested – and she knew why he'd refuse. With that in mind, she also hadn't anticipated him to elaborate further, but he did. "I think…I need to see him alone – just the two of us like we were years ago. If the memory of our time together isn't enough for him to be honest with me…then I don't know what to think…"

"I understand." He stood as she said it and Alicia tried to offer him a small smile for his mind to carry along as he faced the man – it may, she could only hope, provide him with something to fall back on if he became disheartened. With another smile and similar air about her, she took his hand more firmly for a few seconds before releasing it to prepare for his leaving the room. "Just do what you can without hurting yourself; it'll be hard… Please, promise me you'll come back here afterwards – before you see Alexis."

He considered this for a moment and nodded. "I will. You should sleep, but I promise I'll be here after it's over."

"If I'm asleep, wake me up," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards into a smile. "Promise?"

His mouth twitched as well. "I'll wake you – promise."

It was then that he left – at the very least, headed at a decent pace towards the door and took the knob in his hand. He didn't leave just yet, pausing for a moment or two with the door still closed. It wasn't that he was rethinking his decision to talk with the chancellor – alone – nor was he purposely stalling to prolong the time before he discovered how changed or unchanged the man was; he simply waited until he heard a soft rustling from the direction of the bed. For that sound – almost too soft to hear but enough to finally propel him to quietly open the door and step out into the hall – indicated that Alicia had at long last lain down. As he'd waited, a part of him wondered if he was doing more harm than good – that she would keep up her air of strength until he could no longer see her – but he didn't listen to it; even if that was her original intention, he figured she'd make the sacrifice and lie down for his sake.

As he made his way through the halls of the Obelisk Blue Girls' dormitory, Zane did his best not to attract much attention from students he passed by but all in all he wondered if he should bother; he was the only boy, supposedly, in the entire building. Needless to say, he was relatively unsuccessful: girls chattered to their friends – actually pretending to be secretive, waved the occasional greeting – that was unfailingly ignored, and chanced the unfortunately not so occasional flirtation that he partially hated to brush off – rather, completely paid no mind – so coldly. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with small masses of people whispering about him – he'd long since learned to ignore it – or that he feared being discovered in the dormitory by a staff member – they were few and far between, and even so his reputation would be enough to shield him from some sort of reprimand – but he simply needed to get out as quickly as possible. He didn't worry about losing the will to see Sheppard for he knew at the core of his being that he needed to ask him about what was going on, but he was fairly certain that the more time he spent traveling to him would detract from his ability to present his case. He was becoming more emotional by the moment, even if most others couldn't tell, and he wasn't sure how long it would be before he was too overcome to effectively carry out his accusations and relay his concerns.

The morning sun had grown in brightness and in hue from when Zane had seen it earlier, that fact quite easily explained with how it was currently noon when the celestial object was at its height. The students outside the dorms were keen on using it to their advantage, it seemed; they spent time with their friends walking along the beach or sitting in the grass and talking happily, about what he couldn't discern but he could probably guess if he tried. If he were in the mood to worry about what seemed like so trivial a matter to him, he would figure that he must seem so strange to them – sticking out like a sore thumb he was a pillar of gravity amongst so many carefree, happy faces bathed in golden light. It was often that he willed he could afford to be as careless as the students he saw before him but it was not a realistic desire the way he looked at it; no matter what he tried, he could never will away the knowing.

In all truth, the Obelisk wasn't sure he regretted the decisions he'd made and the turns his life took in response to them. After all, for many years he'd been what he would consider happy – fortunate. Being that the memories and knowledge he'd rather forget only appeared in his later years – the years he spent on the very island he was currently hurrying over – he supposed he could attribute his negative experiences to the effects of growing older. As a child, the world seemed so stable and the people in it open – completely honest whether they were virtuous or otherwise – but the older he grew the less that perfect world fit together. He hated to think it was merely because he was more perceptive of his surroundings for that would imply that the people he had grown up believing in and trusting with his life had always been as two-faced as they presently were. And so he clung to the idea that people had changed, though for reasons completely unknown to him; if only they would admit to altering themselves, he would be content to never know their inspiration for doing so.

Of course, the chancellor would be an exception…

The school was relatively quiet, presenting no allure for students when in the shadow of such a fine day as that morning, and so Zane didn't have to take many precautionary steps in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. It was a fair distance to the chancellor's office once he'd entered the building, actually, though to save himself time he gradually increased his pace every few seconds – unless he passed another individual in the hall, that was. He couldn't see the door to any degree – he still had to climb two flights of stairs and head down another few halls – but he could've sworn he felt its presence growing closer to him. He knew it was completely illogical to imagine he somehow mystically detected the room and so settled that it was a response of his nervousness rising as he neared the inevitable confrontation. His heart was pounding in his chest and he had a feeling it wasn't due to physical exertion.

"What…?"

He whispered the word aloud, though not for anyone else to hear, as he came to a screeching halt at the last corner he would round before facing the door to the chancellor's office. The hall looked the same as it always did – endlessly long and lined with windows almost as far as the eye could see – but what took him by surprise was the number of black-clothed individuals congregated in front of the entrance to the office. They looked to be security, from what he could tell by looking at their uniform attire, but there were more of them in the hallway than he'd thought were on the entire island. His curiosity was piqued as his brain pleaded with him to take the time for it to attempt the imagination of a reason to explain the individuals' presence, but Zane had to deny it; he needed his mind's services for other purposes. Temporarily ignoring just how many security officials were in the hall, he had to focus on what method he would follow to get _through_ them, for judging by their formation they would not be inclined to let him pass peacefully. Yet when he did think about it, what was there to do besides the obvious…?

He let out a small sigh, immediately followed by a deep breath with which he hoped to calm himself. It worked to some extent – he managed to get his legs moving in the right direction – but it didn't give him much more confidence about what he was doing. However, he realized his affected cold persona would serve him well in this situation; he could fully hide behind it. And so he did; when he approached the group directly before the door, his tone was one step from monotonous and completely official.

"I'm here to see the chancellor." He honestly would've been happier to have not spoken a word, but the looks they gave him when he attempted to navigate around them begged him to. They didn't budge at all to part the crowd for him and he narrowed his eyes. "Pardon me."

One of them, who he figured had some sort of higher standing over the others by his position in the center, responded without any feeling whatsoever – even less emotional than Zane was. Strange; he hadn't thought it was possible. "Chancellor's busy."

"It's urgent," he said in retort, keeping his voice level. An idea – however futile as he believed it to be – came to him and he held up his student ID. "Zane Truesdale – top student here. I need to see Chancellor Sheppard immediately. Please…" He stepped to the man's side and pushed lightly by another official – the other seemed put off but did nothing. "…move aside."

The man who spoke to him did not appear content with the student's actions; he didn't glare at him, but the tension in the air was circling closer to create an increasingly dense fog resting about their heads – the temperature seemed to drop. He wrapped a hand completely around Zane's upper arm and firmly tugged him back a pace. "Chancellor's business is urgent itself, kid; he wants no disturbance."

The student's eyes flashed as he attempted to pry his arm out of the vice-like grip, but it did him no good. Yet it was not an entirely useless endeavor; he spotted a very small however very clear path to the door and formulated a plan. If the chancellor and whoever was inside with him had ordered there to be no disturbance – which the guards outside were keen on ensuring – he'd simply have to create a disturbance they couldn't ignore.

"Take your hands off me."

He didn't shout the order – he didn't need to because it wasn't his voice he intended to use to draw the chancellor's attention. While the security official appeared too invested in whether he should let up any or not, Zane kicked the office door sharply with all the force he could muster. It was only once – the official holding him jerked him back out of his leg's reach of the door the second he'd done it – but that was all he needed; the resulting sound of his heel against the metal was loud enough to be heard halfway down the hall, let alone in the office. There was a commotion inside, muffled voices no doubt asking each other what the source of the unexpected sound had been, and finally one voice rose above the others.

"What was that…?"

Zane smirked at the guard minding him, apparently to that man's dismay. "Looks like they're disturbed. Why don't I explain it to them for you…?"

This time – at long last, really – the guard glared intently at him and apparently held himself back from letting something colorful pass his lips. Zane wasn't one to gloat, and definitely wasn't in the mood to do so at present, but if he was he would've derived some sort of satisfaction from watching the guard's reaction and studying how he continued to handle himself. He was still, on the immediate surface, strictly business, but there was a new air about him of feeling; for lack of a better phrase, he was pissed. The student could tell by the force of the hand, that which had once taken his arm, coming down on his shoulder to push him along towards the door. The other officials looked as stricken as they could be in their line of work; their jaws were firmly set and their lips were pressed tightly together into frowns. They parted the way for the two of them as they passed by – rather, as the younger of the two was shoved by – and didn't display any sympathy for him or his cause in their stony eyes. They actually displayed a vague sense of anxiety; most likely they'd never known their higher-ranked peer to be pleasant when as agitated as he was currently.

The metal door slid open when they were within half a step of it, revealing there to be both the chancellor, as Zane expected, and even more security officials, which Zane expected but not in such numbers, inside. Every individual in the room looked to them, and if the Obelisk were one to crack under pressure he surely would've squirmed under their gazes. However he was not one to do so and instead entered the office as rigidly and unaffected as ever – to the extent he could manage with the guard pushing him from behind, that was. One familiar man in the room, wearing the recognizable black uniform of security yet with a strong aura of authority completely enveloping him that immediately suggested to all those about him that he was the highest-ranking officer present, removed his eyes from the student and settled them on the guard. He didn't appear displeased for his face was frozen over, but the equally icy quality of his tone nearly sent shivers up Zane's spine – for a brief moment of frailty he was relieved the words weren't directed at him.

"What is this?" While the man almost certainly meant the action of barging into the room by "what," Zane couldn't help narrowing his eyes at the possibility that he wasn't regarding him as an entire person.

"He only said he had to see the chancellor – not why, just that it was urgent, sir," the guard replied. His use of the title at the end confirmed the student's previous notion about the other man's standing. "I asked him to leave but he refused; he'd rather cause a ruckus and afterwards offered to explain himself." It was the guard's turn to glare at him again now. "So here he is."

"I see…" The head of security regarded him – seemingly looking over each aspect of him and his frame from his distance across the room – and addressed him coldly. "Is that true?" He didn't wait for a response; the burn behind Zane's eyes was enough to give him an answer. "Well then, I suppose you'd best explain yourself."

Zane steeled his nerves against the man's tone, no gentler than it had been when he'd questioned him about finding Allison's body in the forest and perhaps even more hardhearted. After all the trouble he'd gone through to get himself to this point – a mere room's distance away from the man whose nature he'd come to question – the Obelisk felt he could care less if his accusations were made with or without an audience. He opened his mouth to speak – to accuse before all these people – but he soon realized he was unable to get the words out for another voice – the to-be accused man's, actually – interrupted him. A portion of him figured Sheppard would catch on before he said anything too damning, but he hadn't entirely expected him to realize what was happening before he'd gotten his first word out. That alone may suggest the man was more perceptive than he'd given him credit for – not so detached from his training – but it could also support the claim that the chancellor, after knowing him for years, trusted that anything his most elite student had to say to him – anything he'd make a fuss over – had to be worth hearing alone.

"Savion…" He addressed, from what Zane could tell based on the chancellor nodding in the man's direction, the head of security first, followed by the others in the room. He didn't actually speak to them, but he indicated them with a similar nod. "…please excuse us for a moment."

The man did not make any effort to argue the point with him; he only looked to the group of his personnel, and the guard behind Zane before turning briskly and stalking out the door, followed closely by the aforementioned individuals. He still didn't glare – the guard did, but not the other man – which the student attributed to his being called off; it wasn't that he had something personally against him, after all. He was only doing his job and didn't take to students messing with it, but if his employer didn't take offense to such a student's actions then he had no business holding any make of a grudge, small or large. Leading his group, they headed out in an almost single-file formation – incredibly organized, the Obelisk would have remarked if he weren't so preoccupied. After all, the moment the door closed behind them, the chancellor clasped his hands behind his back and regarded him for a few more moments before speaking.

"Zane…" The caution in his voice was unexpected but would prove necessary; he sensed something was wrong. "Tell me, what is it that you wished to see me about…?" There was hesitation in his voice, almost as though he didn't want to ask at all and wished the teen would forget whatever he'd come for and leave. It wasn't in order to resume what he and the security officials were discussing, however; he feared what he may have to answer.

For once in his life, the man wanted to run away.

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Thank you once again for reading; probably not a masterpiece, but I hope it will suffice as I try to get this story moving again! It has occurred to me to revamp the thing, at least until the later chapters that I wrote more recently, but I probably won't - it would take time that I should rather spend writing future additions!

Hopefully this means something; I have the next chapter partially written, so I expect the next update of this to be fairly soon - maybe this week. I'll try my best for anyone who reads this, and to make up for not updating for so long... Please review if it's not inconvenient for you - anonymous or not, I'll be very grateful!


	27. Chapter 27

Hello everyone who is still reading this story; I thank you! I realize I have completely failed to update this in months, and while I can blame it on college and life in general...decency and my own wish to update this makes it inexcusable. That being said, here is the next chapter!

Also, the coming chapter (28) of this story will be up _very_ quickly; I can guarantee that this time because it's already written. Originally I intended this to be one chapter, but based on how long the overall thing was and the fact that I would have had a major page break in between, I decided to cut it into two (well okay, I got lots of advice that told me to...) That being said, this chapter here is a little shorter... Many apologies and I hope you enjoy!

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Zane didn't want to waste any time before answering, but unfortunately the uncertainty in the chancellor's voice – an emotion he had never grown accustomed to regarding the man – caught him quite off guard and he lost the words he originally planned to say. He was thus forced to take time – not too much in reality, a few seconds, but an eternity to him – to form new ones in his mind and get them out effectively through his lips without sounding too hesitant himself. In all truth, he hadn't braced himself for the experience of confronting the man and he realized he'd not thought it over well enough. He believed there would be some tugs on his heart – some difficulties – accusing the individual who'd held his hand and walked him through so much of what came to make up his life for years, but never had he considered the possibility of altogether freezing on the spot with those too familiar eyes locked on him. He never considered how he wasn't accusing the chancellor…

He was accusing his mentor, and for all intents and purposes, his father.

"Sir…" His voice hadn't failed him – not yet, at least. He could only hope it kept at it until the conversation was over, whenever that would be, but he doubted it. Thinking his words over in his head… It was already difficult for him to hold himself steady and not visibly tremble, and speaking the dreaded truths and charges out loud couldn't possibly benefit his condition. "…why are you hiding student deaths…?"

When the words reached his ears, Sheppard looked positively stricken, yet somehow not surprised; most likely because it was a question like that that he'd feared would be asked of him the moment Zane stepped into his office. There was evidence of pain in his eyes; some sort of inner agony originating from his heart was spurred onwards through the rest of his being by the question, causing his hands clench each other tightly behind him where his student couldn't see them. He had a vague feeling it didn't matter anyway – as perceptive as Zane was, it was within the realm of possibility that he both saw the changed look in his eyes and felt the nervous, hurt tension about his person. Still, seeing how the student was not taking his physical and emotional response as an answer, for truly it was not one, the man steadied himself and tried to form a verbal answer that wouldn't damn either of them.

It wasn't simple, to say the least. None of the options the chancellor immediately thought of were pleasant – no one of them easier to say than the others and none sitting well with him. A younger side of him, more naïve than he himself was, wondered aloud within his mind why looking into the cerulean eyes of his most successful and adored student didn't force him to speak the truth and render his ability to omit aspects of reality ineffective. It was with a mental heavy shake of his more experienced head that he answered that voice inside him; he knew perfectly well why those eyes weren't truth serum. However, though they did not force him to be completely honest, they did not take away the pain he felt from lying – they couldn't do so much as soften the guilt that overcame him each time he pondered what exactly he was doing, and in fact they only sharpened the knife in his heart. He didn't want to tell the whole truth for the sake of those eyes before him and their bearer, and he was willing to pay the price for withholding it.

He only hoped he would not be forced to pay too dearly.

Attempting to preserve his image – collected and not nearly as anxious as he was, the elder of the two did his best to subdue the emotions threatening to overtake him and tried to respond with as little blowback as he could. "The students on this island…are my utmost concern…" The partial falsehood stung but he thought of it as little as possible. He did care about his students – he only hoped no soul could deny that – but as a whole they were not his top priority. Of them, as much as he knew it made him a terrible caretaker for thinking in this way, there was one for whom he would readily – guiltily but readily – put the others at risk.

Zane narrowed his eyes; the man was avoiding his questions already, and he didn't take to being ignored to any extent. He continued to be uncomfortable with the situation, but as the seconds ticked by on the clock and his inquiries were not even closely met, he found an increasingly strong will within him that pushed him to ask much more directly. He couldn't tell at first what it was – this newfound strength – but didn't want to spend time thinking it over as it appeared to be helping him with the problem at hand. As it turns out, it would have done him no good to think because there was no way any mind under such stress could dissect such a complex force as was the force within him; born of emotion, it was a compilation of everything he had felt in the last year or so coupled with the feelings he had for this man before him. Sorrow, anger, confusion, frustration, loneliness… The list only went on and on of what aligned itself with his new willpower and surely no amount of time would suffice in entitling each emotion with a proper name – a number of them, these great emotions, were of the sort that could not be described even by those experiencing them.

"You didn't answer my question," he near snapped in retort, adding the respectful title of "sir" so far later than his last word that it barely fit with the rest of the sentence. It was more than an afterthought, however; the student truly had debated whether or not the man deserved the honorific or not, and while he'd in the end decided that he indeed did not, he felt it would further the conversation to say it anyway and not have the chancellor become too invested in its absence. He took a few steps towards him, his tone regretfully rising slightly. "Why are you trying to conceal the fact that your students are dead?"

"I would have hoped my answer would have sufficed; I am not…" The chancellor wasn't thinking too carefully over his sentence when he said it, feeling that the need to get some words out there in his defense was greater than the necessity to say exactly the right thing, which he doubted existed in the first place. He'd paused when he noticed Zane's mouth opening and was willing to let him interject, but the teen said nothing – only glared. "I would never ignore the death of anyone on this island; it hurts me to have you believe otherwise."

He took another step closer to the man – closer to the desk, actually, which served as a perhaps necessary barrier between them. Considering how he was faring up to this point, the younger of the two couldn't be sure if he could fully contain himself, but he had to try to any degree. "How can I not?" he demanded, not caring enough to notice the hurt look in the chancellor's eyes when his tone rose. "You claim you would never ignore it, and yet every student who's died on this island has disappeared; their names, their stories, their lives – they've all been erased! And here you sit and let them vanish; refusing to investigate, you file them away so their accounts will rot in the back of the archives where no one will find them!"

"Zane…!" The hurt still ever present in his eyes, Sheppard placed his hands on the desk and looked squarely down at his student. He was attempting to not lose focus and preserve the secrets he must, but he barely succeeded with the near overwhelming urge to reveal everything simply to appease the teen. "A public investigation – that's what you want from me…? There would be mass panic!"

"What about the people who are left behind?"

In truth, the chancellor had been prepared to speak further, but his mouth closed the instant Zane spoke over him. Whatever self-restraint the top student had been using thus far completely dissipated, the volume and increasingly high pitch to his voice perfectly evident of that. The man hated to hear it – that voice, so battered by emotion that it barely kept itself steady – and would have spoken again himself if only to drown it out. However, he did not, for when he thought over the Obelisk's choice of words he realized – for sure, this time – that he hadn't come to the office to talk about Allison. It wasn't that the boy didn't care about what happened to the deceased student, no, but she had merely been the straw to break the camel's back, as it were – she was the last his heart could bear.

Yet coming to this conclusion brought with it anything save relief, and as pathetic as he knew it surely was, Sheppard vowed he would not speak unless directly questioned on the subject – he prayed he would not be. He knew he should have a better answer than running away – he knew that with all his years and experience in the world he should somehow have learned a more mature tactic for dealing with it, but each time he thought it over – each time he considered any and all methods that came to mind and the potential responses to them he found his current plan to be the safest. Not for him, no, for he was no fool; it didn't take him long to figure he was damned either way. What he envisioned from the day those students disappeared was a method of containment that would spare the very teen before him any hardship and, while his plan was not working to the fullest as he felt the hurt radiating off of that person, he would not abandon it for fear of Zane losing the innocence he had left.

He couldn't bear to think he'd already lost it.

Of course, Zane couldn't possibly know all of that – of how his beloved mentor wanted nothing more in the world than to secure his happiness, and if such was not possible, his sanity. It was with a heavy heart the man acknowledged this – how he only wished his actions were somehow enough to reassure the student he was doing all he could for his benefit! He could see the betrayal behind the hauntingly sorrowful eyes, and even if he couldn't he felt it emitting from his person, casting a depressed haze over the room. He was still shouting and didn't appear to be letting off anytime soon for it seemed he couldn't do anything else; it was as though the screaming itself was the last force aiding him in holding back the tears threatening to fall. Truthfully, Sheppard wasn't sure if the will to not cry before him was a mental choice – difficult to believe with Zane in such a state – or inherent, and not having the time to debate it he sided with both.

"You have nothing to say to them…? You have nothing to say when you know their loved ones will never come home?" He sucked in a breath, having not done so for a fair amount of time. "You allow them to wait endlessly for people you know won't come back – can't come back because they're _dead_!"

The man straightened to the best of his ability, which was most likely not to a great extent, and spoke with as much authority as he could still call upon. "Those students are _missing_; we don't have the information to conclude they'll never be found! We continue to search for…"

"And Allison, is _she_ missing too?" he interjected, rage growing with each lie – what he believed to be one, that is – that passed his ears. "You search to keep their hope alive – to keep suspicion away – but you know the truth! However you conceal it, you know she'll never find her brother!"

Zane didn't notice due to his emotional state, but Chancellor Sheppard froze at the last statement – his greatest fear unfolding before him. He didn't want to talk about Alexis' brother, and he knew that was to whom the Obelisk was referring. Even if he were completely honest at this point and admitted that he and his team of highly trained security professionals found no trace of him, what good would it do? Zane wouldn't believe him – he couldn't blame him for that – and even if he did, what good would it do? He would only revert to his original condition – withdrawn, cold, and sick enough in heart and soul that if he were any other individual he'd collapse. All the man's hopes were dwindling as the argument – he supposed he must now call it – furthered; namely, he had hoped the teen's coming out of his shell was due to him forgetting about his missing best friend. It wasn't true – he could see that now clearer than ever – and even the blanket of contentment that had been thrown over his pain was no longer of any use; it was fading along with his faith in him.

The glare locked on him told he had to speak, but in the end it only hooked his voice and drew it out of him without any input on his part. His mind didn't want to say the wrong thing…even knowing that everything was and would be wrong at this point. "This is about…Atticus…" The name was so foreign to him, despite saying it every passing day both aloud and to himself; he only knew it in the context of his investigation anymore. The boy was barely a person so much as a grail after all he'd done in vain to locate him. "I don't know anything about…"

He blinked, startled, as Zane forcefully slammed his hands down on the desk between them; the fact that the object was present was pure fortune, for the chancellor had a feeling something or someone would have take the hit in any case. "Why do you lie to me – _how _can you lie to me? How can you tell me he's missing after all this time…when you know the others to be gone? How can you let Alexis drive herself mad with worry when there's nothing to worry about? Why would you have me believe he'll return when you know he's…"

At that moment, Zane's voice trailed off and the once raging flames of anger cooled to embers at best if not altogether burnt out. Sheppard had worried about this happening when the Obelisk finally reached the supposed reality of Atticus being dead – when his mind at last wrapped around it, he was near certain he couldn't handle it as well as he'd thought he would. It appeared the man was correct in that assumption; the teen began trembling, first in his hands as he drew them back to his person and then in the rest of his body. His eyes were wide open but devoid of any previous fire they'd possessed; large, bottomless pools they were now only filled with the idea of sorrow for they were in truth too blank to convey any emotion whatsoever. It was the sight of him that wrenched the chancellor's heart and left it burning in his chest – crying out itself. His spirit cried for the student before him, mourning the death of what it knew to be so radiant a creature and the birth of another, born of the pain left behind and cloaked in grief.

There was no innocence in that.

"Atticus…is dead…" The volume was barely above a whisper yet louder in the man's ears than anything that had already passed between them – louder than the shouting and accusations. It was a completely broken tone of a voice, soft and dejected, yet each syllable sent an electric sort of ache through the body.

"Zane…" He reached out to him but without success; the teen slapped his hand away before it reached his shoulder.

"Don't touch me…" It was an order yet there was nothing in his speech that suggested he could enforce it; he rather pleaded. "You… You're a cruel man…"

Not daring to upset the student further, though he wasn't sure how such a thing would be possible, the chancellor could only watch helplessly as Zane turned on his heel and _fled_ the scene. He didn't look back – not once – while barely allowing the door to slide open as he dashed out, and certainly not giving the security outside any time at all to move before pushing through them. Every fatherly sentiment in his heart told him to go after the boy, even if he wasn't going to say anything, but he did what he could to ignore the urge; he'd done enough. Instead, he managed to sit himself in his chair without falling to the ground with the weight of his spirit on his shoulders and laid his elbows on the desk, hands pressed together against his forehead. He heard the door open again and could figure who was coming in – security, particularly their head, were keen on completing their tasks no matter what affected their initial plans, such as their employer's distress – but didn't have the energy to look up and address him. He only muttered a few words aloud, more to himself than anyone.

"They are dead…but how could I explain that…?"

Savion allowed sympathy to flash in his eyes for a moment before replacing it with his general expression, or rather lack thereof. He shifted his stance to set his weight on his back leg and pondered for a moment, about what he was going to say and how he planned to say it. "But we didn't find Atticus Rhodes." He waited for a few seconds, feeling he was going to receive a response passed the sigh that immediately came his way, and his guess was eventually correct.

"Yet how could I ever tell him…? I can't bear to make it worse…" He pressed his hands more firmly into his forehead, a headache ringing in his ears. "God, I love that boy…"


	28. Chapter 28

Heavy breathing - pants. That was what any bystander would have cause to stop and wonder about on their trip through the hallways of Duel Academy; what ever was that sound? Was a student late for class...on a weekend? That couldn't be, and that would probably be where the questioning stopped. No one had any cause to particularly wonder about the possibility of someone dashing through the halls...at the very least not to the point that it would take more than a few moments of their time. Yet even if they did, there was only the remotest of possibilities that they would conceive of the severity of emotion with which this particular form dashed; alas, they could never understand. It was best, then, that they took no notice of it. Of course it was even more perfect that there was no one around, and so the off chance of someone daring to step into the figure's running path was eliminated completely. There was absolutely nothing to worry about.

Not that the figure took this into account. His heart was not relieved in the slightest for it was unconnected with the rational portion of his brain - the only fraction of his being that had a prayer at appreciating this stroke of truth. Even what remained of his logical reasoning was all to overcome with the emotion radiating from other areas of both his conscious and unconscious mind to piece a straight thought together; what he could manage were bits and pieces of words and sentences that his own mind could somewhat interpret but would be undoubtedly incomprehensible to all others. That was all right though, for the time being at least, because though he did remotely recall promising one individual a visit before running too far away by himself, he was experiencing a great difficulty in pushing himself to abide by such promise. Return to the dorm - tell the girl was he had learned and what he planned to do next... It seemed clearly defined in his head, but factoring his heart into the equation he was near certain he couldn't do it. After all, how could he possibly explain what new knowledge he now possessed when, thinking back on it, he couldn't be entirely sure he'd acquired any?

That was a mild stretch of the truth. The fact was that he was sure his meeting with Chancellor Sheppard had brought two truths to his attention; one, he could no longer rely on the faith he had in others resulting from knowing them for years and gaining each other's confidence, and two, Atticus Rhodes was dead. Yes, he could expand those to account for their broader implications as well, he supposed. For instance, not only was he convinced that Atticus was no longer among the living but that those who had accompanied him on his last journey, as it were, were currently just as absent from the natural plane as he was. If one was dead, decidedly, why not logically condemn them all for the sake of closure? It wasn't as though Sheppard had denied the reality, per se; he claimed to care about each student and would not ignore their deaths, but not once did he attempt to convey that such deaths hadn't occurred. He could have easily sworn neither he nor his security force had located dead bodies or traces of foul play in the case of the missing students - he could have denied the accusation that he would report Alison Heliodyn as "missing" should anyone ask. But he did not; as far as his student, currently running as fast as he could out of the school's main building, was concerned, he confessed.

Still, Zane had nothing to tell Alicia...or even worse, Alexis. Nothing that he could exactly prove, anyway; he knew full well that he would at least inform the latter of her brother's death, if only to finally put her search to rest and allow her to at least move on with her young life. Yet this revelation was of an uncanny sort; the Obelisk's certainty in what he was to say was based solely on the raging sense of conviction and pain in his heart and driven by that alone. It shared no ties with the sort of facts that he imagined he'd like to possess when explaining and proving his sense to others; emotions could not be well articulated or entrapped in words for the convenience of transportation into another's heart. Facts - empirical proof - was much better suited for that sort of activity, but there were no facts in this case as the chancellor hadn't exactly admitted to his guilt. That being said, Zane's heart only beat faster as his panting breaths became more panicked and ragged...unrelated to the increasing amount of ground his running legs covered. It was a duty he had placed upon his own shoulders ever since Atticus disappeared - taking care of Alexis in his stead while at the same time knowing it was his responsibility to keep her as up to date as possible regarding her brother's case. He knew Alexis most likely did not hold him to the same standards, for in her mind they were on the same level - concerned family searching tirelessly in their own right towards a sense of communal closure - but that did nothing to alleviate his burden. He didn't want it to, after all; he liked to think he was helping Alexis function as a normal teenage girl by lifting a substantial amount of the weight involved in not knowing where one's dearest (and only) sibling is off her.

It was selfish of him, only giving him a greater self-importance that no other would or could recognize, but it was enough. Any shame he felt admitting that was outweighed by its ability to keep him grounded enough in the world to not appear insane.

"What is this worth...?" he asked he air, slowing his pace to a light jog as he neared the path the the Obelisk Blue dormitories. Now more unsure of his plan than ever, he headed closer to the forest entrance at right and dared pause for a rest against the sturdy trunk of a tree. He would not stop for long, lest someone happen along and vocally wonder what troubled him (or at least why he looked like the epitome of poetic melancholy, leaning with such an expression of emotional and physical exhaustion upon his face). "Atticus is gone - my mission that has overtaken me these past years has come to the end I was not always sure existed...and yet I feel as though I have accomplished nothing." He shook his head, ordering the tears threatening to fall to retreat back away from his eyes. He was in a pathetic state, for any empaths peering into his emotions to fully experience; there was no reason to allow each and every viewer to realize the same by becoming an equally pathetic sight to behold.

Zane was initially to rest longer - the more time he took from running the more his legs grew sore, most likely from the fact that he did not often exert them to the extent he did this morning - but a chill running mercilessly up his spine propelled him away from the tree trunk. He whipped his head around to focus his eyes on the forest - on the trees growing darker and more mysterious the further into the thick of the woods they extended, and in an instant his eyes flashed, recalling their haunting significance. Less than a moment after he was so leisurely relaxing against one of such trees he was cursing them and withdrawing from the forest - physically and via his line of sight - as though burned by its essence. That forest offered no comfort, however foolishly he imagined it to; that was the same forest which swallowed Atticus and his peers, and the same forest which so cruelly hid the monster which - an easier word to say than _who _- murdered Alison. Keeping the latter offense in mind, he mentally spit on the woods in their entirety, for murdered was the cleanest, kindest, and more forgiving of the offender way of describing just what had been done to the girl, and the woods (inanimate as they may be) should be right ashamed that they did not draw back to reveal the perpetrator in all his or her or its sins to be witnessed by others...and hopefully brought to "justice." Whatever that meant on the island, anyway, with Sheppard having all there was to say about it.

He was walking again, this time with a more definite course in mind as he envisioned returning to Alicia's room in the girls' dormitory; he intended to make good on his promise to her. After all, he imagined he'd already broken enough words of his in his recent life, to her and to others, and frankly it was high time he stopped. No longer did he plan to use the necessary secrecy of his mission to find Atticus and the other students (however an afterthought they undeniably were) as an excuse to never bind himself to the agreements he made with others; there was no more secrecy to hide behind at all. Now that he was certain of what had happened, or at least certain of the end result without explicit details as to how that end occurred, he didn't want to hide anymore. He wanted to live openly...and who knows, maybe it would have the effect of causing others to be more honest and open with him. He wouldn't complain if that was the case. Still there was a part of him that didn't want to entirely assign the task of updating Alexis on the situation to Alicia, even the part she'd agreed to - inform the blonde that Zane wanted to speak with her later by the lighthouse - and so without a second thought he took out his PDA and called Alexis' number.

She, most likely after recognizing the caller, took the call after only one ring. _"Zane? What is it?"_

He sighed, hoping it wasn't as audible over the phone as he imagined it was in person. "There's something...I have to tell you - that we need to talk about. Can you meet by the lighthouse tonight?"

She didn't respond right away and it worried him. He could practically hear her heartbeat quickening as she envisioned what he might be implying - what news he may have - but when she finally did comment, she was as collected as she always was. _"Of course I can. I can head over there now if you want..."_

"No; let's wait for tonight - at nine-thirty when the campus is definitely quiet. I...need the rest of the day to think it over."

_"...think it over? Zane, if there's something bothering you then I don't want you to carry it around alone for longer than you have to; you have to have figured I wouldn't. You know...you can tell me anything, and it doesn't have to be a work of art when it comes out. We're always in this together - on the same page."_

He allowed that comment to let him smile a little, though it was a decidedly sad smile. He charged himself with protecting Alexis...and like a mother hen she often charged herself with doing the same for him. He was fortunate to have someone who did care for him so truly, that he knew, but nevertheless it was a tad frustrating since it had a tendency to counteract his efforts. "I know; believe me, I would never think otherwise. It's only that I have a bit more to figure out for myself before I allow you to become equally burdened with it. I want to make sure I have it right, because two misinformed people is a greater hazard than one." He paused. "I promise; I'll have it all worked out by tonight. Meet me there?"

_"Of course I will. Nine-thirty sharp, not a moment later. I'll be there."_

Having arranged the meeting to his satisfaction, Zane bid Alexis a temporary farewell and hung up before reinserting the PDA in his pocket and staying the course towards the dormitory. However instead of heading straight to his original destination, Alicia's room, he allowed his path to bend a little in order to head first to his own room where he planned to retrieve a certain photograph to bring along to the meet. He didn't need it - the picture of Atticus - exactly to further his story to the boy's sister that evening, his logical mind told him, but there was a feeling inside him - inside his heart, perhaps - that suggested otherwise. Somehow it didn't seem right that he should keep it now that the brunette was gone; despite how he strongly felt he was deserving of it...Alexis was his flesh and blood. With Atticus having...died, she had more claim to it. Also, it would serve in place of a "proper burial", which there undoubtedly would have been if they had been so "fortunate" as to discover the former Obelisk's body and not be forcibly satisfied with the high probability of him being gone. The tireless searching that had gone on for over a year now... That chapter would end, the book of longing and foolish hope would close, and instead of burying it under six feet of earth, this photograph would wrap tightly around it. That way, it and the pain it enclosed could never be reopened.

Even if that pain would one day be desirable. However exteriorly stoic Zane managed to be towards others as of late, he could think of no worse fate than one of eternal numbness.

Still, he had managed to reach the Obelisk Boys' residence by the time his mind found this latest train of thought and so he dropped it for the duration of winding through the least crowded halls to his room. On a weekday, avoiding any contact with other students at "home" was not a challenge in the least; either those students were currently in classrooms or saw no purpose to return to the dorms (make the decidedly long trek back) until they had even less reason to stay by the main campus. However there were no such guarantees on weekends, especially relatively early in the afternoon as it apparently was. There was the possibility that many students would be outside - strolling along the beach, dueling informally in the sun, etc. - but then again Zane knew from his two and some years of being at the academy that there were plenty of boys who saw no need to exit the dorm at all if not summoned. It was this group, as he may call them, of relative hermits that he sought to avoid; being the top student at the school had its many perks, but constant attention from admiring underclassman was not one of them.

Atticus would have disagreed.

With a shake of his head, he sighed and realized that his attempt to quiet the thoughts related to his former companion had been in near absolute vain, saved only by the grace that he did not encounter anyone on his room-bound journey. He fumbled with the door a little - his hand, shaking as it was, did not so easily twist the key in the lock even after it managed to insert it - but after closing the door behind him and noting how quickly he all but collapsed against it, he had no cause to complain. In a moment, Zane wasn't sure what was wrong with him, slumped against the white panel at his back. In the next, he was irate, and before his now-narrowed eyes was a ghost of Chancellor Sheppard's image - object of his un-affection, as it were. He, the student, hoisted himself off the door in a violent frenzy, throwing the first thing in which his hand came into contact - in this instance, a relatively small, metal (thanks be to God) table lamp - at the apparition with a rather animalistic snarl. Of course the lamp did not make contact with anything but the floor, for even with his vision adorned with the red smoke of anger, Zane was familiar enough with reality to know the room was empty, and when the dull thud of metal against the floor reached his ears, he gasped at his own outburst.

"What's...gotten into me...?" he asked the air, dragging his legs forward enough to reach the fallen lamp. He made it to his destination but fell to the floor himself when he reached down to pick it up. "I'm a wreck..." His eyes, for the second time since arriving in the room, flashed and off the floor he went with another burst of unexpected ire-filled energy. "How weak - letting this anger towards _him _upset me...! I won't!" Shaking his head again, he pulled himself over to a seat on his bed. "He simply is not worth the effort."

Glancing off to the righthand bedside table, Zane focused his eyes, followed by his attention, on the photograph of Atticus placed there; the glass of the frame was reflecting the light of the sun in from the windows and obscured the portrait a little. In an attempt to right this, perhaps, or most likely to merely gain a closer connection with the idea of both the late teen and the related task to which Zane was later committed, the student took the picture off the end table and removed the glass entirely, setting it back where it belonged and holding the bare image at eye level. He still couldn't tell, and it did bother him, a great deal many things about the image; when was it taken, why was it taken, and by whom. He should know - it was the last piece of Atticus he and Alexis had left in physical form. Yet there it was - unknown. But there was still time to ponder it, before the meeting that evening where the photo would be brought under final consideration, and so he closed his eyes to better imagine the scene, using what he could make out in the corners of the image as a background first. It was unsuccessful. The edges were entirely gray - nondescript. However Atticus was in his Duel Academy uniform, meaning that the snapshot was not only taken on the island but either during classes or in an otherwise formal school setting; Atticus never was one to don his uniform unnecessarily, and he changed out of it often as quickly as he could manage. Still this did not appear to be some sort of photograph taken among friends; it wasn't that the teen _wasn't_ smiling, but it was that the smile resided almost entirely in his eyes. If it were him, Zane imagined, that would mean nothing, but Atticus had always been different; when among those he connected to, he couldn't _keep_ from grinning. That being said, it was a photograph taken on the island - perhaps against the gray walls of the school - by a formal acquaintance.

That narrowed the possibilities by...absolutely nothing, statistically speaking. Eliminating himself and Alexis as possible photographers was barely a significant enough action to be considered a marginal step forward.

Yet after his trying day without accounting for the tiresome effort he'd expended over the last year or so searching for Atticus, Zane took the small victory and smiled a little. He laid his head against something soft - the pillow, he would recognize if his eyes were open. But they were not; he was still trying to delve deeper into the mystery of the photograph, useless as his efforts may be. Somehow he felt he was missing something - forgetting something - and by the time he met up with Alexis, he'd like to not have that thought in mind. If he was going to tell her anything, it must be everything. It was only fair. Dwelling on the thought, however, did him no good; it was as though each time he neared making progress, a thick black cloud overtook him and, when the smoke cleared, there was nothing for his minds' eyes to see. His inquest began with the image of Atticus...and ended with the very same thing.

It was most frustrating. After a time, which he deemed to be only a few minutes, he opened his eyes and sat up in bed (when had he fully lied down...?) to head over to Alicia's room as promised. Yet it was then that he noticed something off; he opened his eyes but the room was just as dark as when they were closed. Glancing quickly over to the alarm clock and taking in the illuminated numbers, he saw why and rubbed at his temple with the hand not secured on the Rhodes' photograph.

"9:10... When did time begin to pass so quickly...? He had no time to think about the question, though he would ideally like an answer to it. He had to be on his way to the lighthouse, considering that by his standards he was already late. That was why he hurried to the door, only sighing as his eyes caught a shadow of a figure as he turned - the familiar sense flooding his head, though it did not quite register as it would should someone he knew actually be standing there by the drapery adorning the windows, was enough to assure him it was only a phantom. He looked at the photograph for a moment as he headed out into the hallway. "I suppose...I'll have to grow accustomed to him haunting me..." In the hurry he was in, Zane shut the door behind him and entirely missed the light sound the shadow made as his hair brushed against the glass.

As he was in said hurry, Zane dialed Alicia's PDA from his own while on the move. He regretted breaking his promise to her - the one that required him to actually grace her with his presence before meeting Alexis, but he wasn't about to worry the blonde by being late to a discussion involving Atticus' fate. No doubt the slighter girl would be upset, but in all honesty it was a sacrifice he had to made and the male highly suspected she would, in the end, understand. That, and if he had cause to mention it (which he did not currently plan to) she would undoubtedly commend him for finally sleeping a good amount of hours. To his surprise, her tone was not sharp nor disappointed in the slightest when she picked up, and he was also pleased to note that the call did not appear to have awoken her.

_"Zane? I would have thought you were at the lighthouse by now..."_

"I'm on the way there now," he replied. It was true; by the time he got to his next sentence, he was out in front of the dorm and on the not so straight path to the very location. "I just...wanted to tell you that I'm sorry I didn't come back tonight - I lost track of the time. I...I fully intended to when we last spoke." There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, and for a moment Zane wondered if perhaps Alicia's mood had been so uplifted because she assumed he'd come while she was asleep. He went a little further, just in case. "I apologize..."

He could practically hear Alicia waving her hand at him on the other end, causing him not to say anything further. _"No - no worries, Zane. I get it. It wasn't for me anyway, you know; I just wanted to make sure you were all right to talk to Alexis but you sound collected now. With that in mind I won't...ask about how this morning went." _She paused again. Knowing Alicia, it was probably because she realized she'd just defeated her own effort not to mention the chancellor. _"Sorry." _Definitely that, then. _"Like I said before, though; I know you can do this...whatever it is you mean to tell her. You always say the right thing."_

"That's kind of you. I disagree but we don't have the time to argue, I see, and it would be best I believe it right now..." He didn't say anything for a little while; he was passing the school now and wanted to make sure no one's footsteps echoed anywhere nearby. After satisfying his worry with reassurance of his solitude, he picked up the conversation again, ironically, with a goodbye. "I'm coming to the lighthouse now - passing the Slifer dorms, actually. I have to go."

That seemed fine with her. _"All right..."_

It didn't seem fine to him - not yet. "I'll come there when we're finished talking...if that's all right with you...?" Considering the late hour he may be thinking of somehow sneaking into the Girls' dorm, he reconsidered and put forth a new solution. "Actually, I'll call you then. If I don't get in touch by eleven, call me."

She smiled. He couldn't see it, obviously, but he knew she did through a combination of the change in her tone and previously knowing how she tended to respond to efforts of kindness and inclusion of others on his part. _"Thank you, Zane. And believe me, after the rest I got thanks to you, I won't be exactly kept awake. I'll talk to you later."_

"Til then. Goodbye, Alicia."

He let the line go dead before hanging up and proceeding to the harbor. Though he needed to get there with relative speed - he hadn't checked his watch yet but knew it was around 9:30 by now - he didn't keep himself from glancing up at the Slifer dorm on the hill as he passed. That was where Syrus was...well, where he would be assuming he wasn't currently serving a detention sentence elsewhere. His brother...whether or not he treated him properly as such. He was relatively sure that he didn't, but Syrus was simply to kind to ever raise the issue. If he was to begin anew now that his previous raison d'être was out of the picture - searching for Atticus, that was - he may as well accept rebonding with his brother as a new one...or at least an idea. He owed the boy that much, and perhaps it would be beneficial for Alexis somehow to see a healthy relationship between siblings in some way similar to the one she had with her own brother. Or maybe he was being too much of a romantic. It was probably the latter.

Sighing, he looked around the area for signs of the blonde girl to no avail; there was no one around at all by the sea except for him, which he had to admit puzzled him a little. Of course he couldn't expect Alexis to show up early - that wasn't fair - but it certainly wasn't her habit to be on time for anything. She only arrived later than he in the past because he generally was already present up to two hours before the actual set time. Still, he began to worry a little and finally checked the time on his PDA, just to make sure it was his being oversensitive that ate at him.

9:40.

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And there we have it! I'm so sorry that I take forever to upload...and even let a few days pass before posting this chapter, despite already having written it by the time the last one went up... I am going to work on the next chapter tonight - I swear! - and so hopefully it will be up in a reasonable amount of time...

I can't thank all my readers enough, especially those of you who review! Just wanted to give a shout out to some of you:

Zoelle: Since you didn't sign in I couldn't PM a thank you to you as I usually do, so thank you very much!

RyuuRaiden: A thank you to you and my assurance that there _will_ be duels coming! Once I get the next chapter out of the way they will be right around the corner!

Katsuki-Namikaze: Thank you for giving me the motivation to continue this story. I love writing _Angel Eyes _- I really do. Sometimes I forget that, thus why I don't try hard enough to write the next chapters, but once I've written it I remember how strongly I am invested in this story.

Ore-Sama: Thank you greatly for your support; your reviews on so many chapters made me smile each time I got them!

Once again, thank you to _all_ readers (even if you aren't inclined to review) and I will try to update quickly! I was thinking, though, of revising this story a little - the beginning parts, that is. However I promise I won't be doing that in such a way that it delays the advancement! A final time (this is probably getting very annoying): Thank you! And please continue reading (...and reviewing!)


	29. Chapter 29

Hello everyone! As promised, I worked on this chapter and got it up rather quickly, if I do say so myself... I thank all of you who are reading this and I'll have more in the author's note at the end of it regarding my plans for this story...

Also, you may notice this, in layman's terms, is a long-ass chapter (7796 word count). I know that might be too long for some people but honestly I didn't see, unlike the previous two chapters, anywhere that I could elegantly split it. I promise that it should be at least mildly exciting so I do hope it doesn't seem like a hugely long bore ^^;. I strive for reader's enjoyment... I'm not sure if I succeed...

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From the moment Alexis got off the phone with Zane, she was looking forward to their meeting at the lighthouse that evening. Though it was something they had done so many times before - a regular sort of bonding exercise, she could say - there was something in the elder Obelisk's voice that told her this time would be...different from the others. It was a desperate and yet impeccably sure undertone - emotions such as hurt and confusion...and yet courage and affection hidden behind his words. That did worry her, to some extent, as did the teen's reluctance to meet any earlier than nine-thirty. As desperate as he sounded on the phone, she would have liked to be there helping him along as early as possible before whatever it was weighed solely on his mind too long. It gave her cause to wonder that perhaps this meeting, unlike those before it, was (at least how Zane imagined it) to be taxing for her in particular.

Perhaps "looking forward" wasn't the proper phrase to describe her state of mind. Anxiously anticipating, she reconsidered, seemed to fit much more truthfully.

Still, she endeavored to not think about it and pull her nervous head together, chiding herself and at the same time reminding that she needed to be strong for Zane. She had no doubts that he would tell her anyway, since what he had to say was clearly important for her to know, but she was no fool; she did not expect that he would not feel guilty should he notice how anxious she already was and then see himself as only adding to her unrest. It was ridiculous, sometimes, how greatly he burdened himself with safeguarding her; she always instructed herself to appreciate it, but with Zane's own mental state more unsteady than her own, she wished he wouldn't trouble himself. However, she supposed it was his way of coping; focus entirely on her so that he wouldn't wallow in Atticus' disappearance.

That is, he wouldn't directly do so; Alexis was confident that his over-protectiveness was a front he used to guide his obsession with the loss of her brother - a "healthier" way of dealing with it. She was inclined to disagree, seeing what all the worry had done to him. The late hours she knew, from the dark circles under his eyes, he spent toiling away at research to find out as much as there was to find about her brother's previous affiliations and exactly where the rest of the world lost touch with him were in her opinion no better than the time he may otherwise spend lying awake and merely wondering in the darkness. In fact, they seemed worse; at least in the latter scenario there was the possibility of the teen falling asleep and forgetting, even only for the few hours during which his eyes were shut. She only hoped he didn't dream about it, though he most likely did. She had to admit, as guilty as it made her, she usually didn't.

The more she thought about it, the clearer it became to her; this meeting was going to be about her brother.

The blonde knew Zane had made some sort of progress; he had, after all, located a picture of her brother (or Alicia had and shown it to him) which may indicate that the abandoned dormitory played some sort of a role in Atticus' disappearance, even if that role was confined to being the last place he was seen. She always had her suspicions about the place; it never seemed possible that a building once so magnificent would be in utter ruin on a well-funded island such as Duel Academy without some sort of nefarious explanation. Also, as popular as the school was it was difficult to imagine the chancellor closing a _dormitory_ of all things, especially one that looked as though it had been built with the intention of being almost if not as grand as the Obelisk dorms. There were those clues that something had happened there, those and the simple fact that the building was off limits in person (not that the rope seemed to stop too many people from entering) and in conversation, at least with members of the staff as to the latter. Now that Zane had discovered her brother's picture there, though, and a photo she had never seen of him before to recognize where it came from, her suspicions were steadily rising. She almost wished Zane would, instead of talking by the lighthouse, agree to accompany her to the dorm and help her look around; with two people they would not only be safer but no doubt end with a twice as successful investigation than by the search efforts of one person alone. Alexis sighed. She wouldn't tell him that - not tonight at least. There were more pressing matters to discuss than looking around in an old building for what _might _be. There currently is, she felt, something that Zane had to tell her about what _is_. Make no mistake; as curious and relatively unafraid as she was when it came to looking into the mystery of it all to find her own answers, the girl could easily accept the assurance of good, sure information presented to her without deciphering it first. She would thank Zane for that.

That being decided upon and settled in her mind, Alexis prepared to leave for the lighthouse at approximately eight-thirty. It was an hour before she had to be there but somehow...she figured being early would have its advantages. After all, Zane was in the habit of arriving before his schedule announced him, and so if she did the same (as she also was accustomed to) it would give them more time to talk before the hour grew late. Although she wasn't concerned about breaking curfew - in the sense that she was fairly certain, after having done so to visit the aforementioned old dormitory numerous times without incident, that it was safe to do so - she did have the common sense to know that if she was out late to the point that it altered her typical routine (and Zane's) the next day, people would ask questions. They would never guess exactly what she was doing, and she certainly wouldn't tell any of them, perhaps with Alicia's exception, but the inquisition made her uncomfortable. She didn't like people, what she would consider, prying into her life when the topic of their inquiry lurked dangerously close to her brother; she feared she would let down her guard and say something about him, and she didn't want anyone's pity. Or help. This was a private matter, as far as she was concerned, hence why all discussions of it were rather clandestine, as this one was - at the harbor a good way into the night when no one was about.

Taking her PDA but leaving her dueling deck on her desk, Alexis opened the door to her room and peered out into the hallway, looking for any other girls lingering before heading into a room. There were none, only a note on the floor, which she quickly picked up, scanned, and deposited alongside her cards on her desk in approximately thirty seconds. It was a short note, after all; apparently, Zane had instructed Alicia to notify her of their evening rendezvous before opting to call her himself. She had to give the girl credit; for all she was involved in - all the dramatic hardships that were Atticus disappearing and more noticeably Zane's ongoing struggle to cope with it - she held it together well and didn't speak a word of it to anyone of whom the blonde was aware. She was a good support for Zane as well, which anyone could see if they stripped away their bias (speaking mostly of those, siding with Chazz Princeton, who believed her to be an absolutely detestable nuissance). Alexis could appreciate that, however unexpected the connection between them was.

There was no time, however, to think about that at the moment; she told herself she'd best leave while the hallways were temporarily clear. Closing the lights in case she did not return before Miss Fontaine (or someone acting as her proxy) made the rounds for "lights out," the Obelisk stepped out of the room and pulled the door shut behind her, checking briefly to ensure it was locked before scurrying over to the stairs. With each step she worried someone would come out and wonder where she was going, but she had a plan for that; she would tell them she was making a late run to the library before it closed, which she had to admit was another benefit of her leaving before the meeting time of nine-thirty demanded she do so - all her explanations were actually believable. But it turned out that she had no cause to worry because the lobby was empty upon her arrival and, judging by the echoes of voices she could faintly hear coming in from another room, a great deal of that was due to a large presence of students in the public bath. Relaxing during the weekend after finishing their first wave of assignments, no doubt, and if she were in a more lighthearted mood she wouldn't hesitate to do the same... She moved on, though, because circumstances did not allow for further dallying and so headed out into the dusk.

She reconsidered as she kept keen eyes on the path before her, making sure not to trip on an elevation or pit; it was more night than dusk at this point. The stars were dim overhead, partially obscured by a misty cloud cover, and accounting for that and the fact that it seemed a few of the school's exterior lights were not functioning properly, Alexis could not say it was a very pleasant night. It could be nature's way of commiserating, if she were to indulge in romance; the night was duly unpleasant for it would be cruel to have a perfect atmosphere surrounding so heartbreaking a topic, but Alexis did not often entertain the thought of nature's intentionality and so she merely attributed the scene to the school's need of a little maintenence work and the directionality of the winds overhead. Either way it did not matter; no weather, not even the storm that had shaken her to the core some time ago, would deter her from keeping her appointment this evening, though she advised it not to try. She also warned the night that it ought not attempt to frighten her before she could hear what it was Zane had to tell her, that warning being a direct response to how she jumped a little and whipped her head towards a rustling in the trees.

"Just...some animal; it's a forest, Alexis..."

Perfectly reassured, at least on the surface, that she was alone, the blonde continued on her way and arrived at the lighthouse without seeing or hearing anything unconventional that would cause her alarm. Still, as she waited by herself for her soon to be companion's arrival, she couldn't shake the feeling that _something_ was wrong, nor could she put her finger on what precisely that something was. It was as though there was a presence watching her, but the feeling was not the same as when one feels another's eyes upon them; it was a broader sort of paranoia. A mist of eyes, almost like the clouds above her head, seemed to envelop her completely, yet when she did finally give in to concern and look around in each and every direction imaginable, there was no one, only the wind laying kisses on the waxing tide. Unsuccessful, she resumed her previous activity of waiting alone, but a few moments later she decided she ought try looking around again in the event that she missed something. To her chagrin there was again no figure in her immediate sight, but what surprised her was the fact that the distance covered by said sight was dramatically less than the first look around she'd taken. A fog had apparently crept onto the harbor, leaving her eyes only two or so meters at most of clear night before the rest of the scene became a guessing game; she could just make out the end of the lighthouse's extension from the main harbor.

The effect of the clouds was sinister, she had to admit, and so she strained her eyes to look deeper, trying to determine, somehow, the cause of the sudden cover and the explanation behind why the feeling of being watched became decidedly more focused. There was still the vague feeling of a sea of eyes, yes, but as the seconds ticked by she was beginning to notice a feeling of one gaze in particular locked on her, and that was what she most endeavored to see. Someone had to be there - she refused to even allow for this all being her mind's own creation - but she did not ask the spiritual eyes their name. Instead she waited and narrowed her own golden gaze on the dim blackness before her, and at long last she finally noticed something of use. A figure approached her through the mist. It wasn't Zane.

"It is not what I would consider a fair evening," the arriver - a young woman judging by the voice - told her as she drew nearer. She stopped a short distance away from Alexis, looking out first over the sea and then briefly up towards the sky. "Yet nonetheless you are out here alone."

Her voice was airy, as though this woman somehow did not have a care in the world for the same reason that she could approach the blonde and talk to her, without doing so much as introduce herself, late at night as though she knew her; she was above it all. The manner in which she spoke - her tone never questioning but making statements about others in the same way one would observe an animal or art - was disconcerting to say the least, and Alexis was not one to tolerate it. She did not want to argue, though; Zane should arrive soon and it would be best if she handled the situation in a mature manner before he did so, lest their own important conversation be delayed. That being said, she narrowed her eyes.

"Can I help you?" Her words offered assistance but her voice did not; it was sharp and clearly, to anyone with the slightest concern for others, instructed the other to cease in speaking to her and go on her way.

The woman sighed a little, though what near infuriated the blonde was that it appeared to be an amused sort of sigh, lacking the apologetic air she would have very much preferred. "That's so kind of you, darling; I am honored that I did not even have to ask..." She turned toward her again and smiled, however chilling the smile was. "What a lovely young lady you are..."

Alexis' premier desire at that point was to tell the woman off, thoroughly disturbed by her manner and choice of words, but somehow when the target of her irritation's face was acknowledged in full by her eyes, she forgot, for a moment, what it was she was about to say. Simply put, the woman was _stunning_, almost - completely, if Alexis was not reassured by what her education had taught her - inhumanly so. The girl wasn't in the habit of really noting other's appearances - she never did think it should be quite as important as many seemed to make it - but looking at this person...was like looking at an embodiment of perfection of form; it was almost freakish. However when she dared delve into the more complex reasoning as to why this face - ivory skin with full, pouty lips, a straight nose, high cheekbones at the top of a smooth if not mildly hollow cheek, and carefully stenciled brows - left her as speechless as she was, she realized it had little to do with the remarkable beauty. It was one feature in particular that caught her attention - the eyes. They were massive green gems of eyes, gently sloped in an almond fashion yet large enough to still appear somewhat round, and they _glowed. _It wasn't what they looked like, Alexis decided (once she got her head together, that was); they quite literally cast a spell on her, and gave her cause to wonder if perhaps this individual dabbled in the occult.

On any other occasion she would never dare to wonder that for lack of practicality, but here the supernatural of which Professor Banner spoke seemed entirely relevant. Natural or above, however, did not matter when it came to the insult taken by the woman's apparent regard for her as somehow less than human, and so the Obelisk glared.

"I'm not your _darling_," she spat. "And if there's nothing you particularly need, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't talk to me..."

"So beautiful...really, darling, you are." The woman didn't regard her in the slightest; if she had proven herself to clearly not be deaf by responding to the girl's earlier words, Alexis would have wondered if she could even hear her. Somehow, though, it seemed wherever this person's mind was at was too far away to register with the world others inhabited. Closing the small gap between them, the offensive individual appeared to study her further. "Perfect."

She did the unthinkable, at least from a decent person's point of view. She, no pause whatsoever to indicate she had the slightest qualms about what she was doing, raised a thin hand from her side and touched the side of Alexis' face, measuring the texture.

Alexis was furious. "Hey - back off!" She pulled away, only to have the intruder step forward in time with her retreat and take her jaw, turning it to the left to get a better view of the side she wanted to see. This was too much for the girl and she snarled, biting at the hand to no avail. "The Hell...? Get off!" She normally didn't condone violence or open herself to the possibility of employing it, but she was fully prepared to make an exception this time around, and so she allowed her "fight" instinct (taking over for the, at the moment, useless "flight" response) take over, shoving the woman once. It was, however, to no avail; the grip on her jaw only grew tighter to enable to holder to maintain her control, even with the force against her, and so the blonde tried a more offensive option; she slapped her.

Rather, she _would_ _have_ slapped her; to her complete shock, someone caught her wrist from behind.

"W-What..."

She meant to say more - meant to make a commotion that hopefully someone would notice, but before she could the hand on her wrist moved to closer tightly around her throat, effectively eliminating her voice. She clawed at the hand but it didn't seem to make any difference to the possessor of it, which did strike her as strange; she could feel her nails ripping through their skin, but they didn't make a sound or, what she would greatly prefer, relax their grip. The thought that perhaps there were some sort of inhuman aspects to the situation was becoming increasingly plausible, and trying to decide just how this individual got behind her - close enough to grab her - wasn't helping ground it in the real world. The girl forced herself to stop thinking about it, however, and concentrated first on continuing to claw at the offending hand before secondly shifting her attention to the force she put into the kick she sent towards the initial offender - the woman with the green eyes had approached her again. To her dismay, the one holder her jerked her back just enough for the kick to miss and tightened the grip on her throat to the point that she couldn't breathe - an unspoken warning about any future outbursts.

"Now, now, Superbia; don't hurt her. I will not have my skin marred with bruises..."

Alexis hissed again, though was grateful that the hold loosened enough to allow the passage of air to her lungs, and considered what the woman had said when enough oxygen returned to her brain. "My...skin...?" she ground out. "N-no...t you-"

"Oh no, darling; it will be mine, you see." She spoke this casually but afterwards the corners of her lips crept upwards into a gleeful smile, one that brightened her eyes along with it, and caused Alexis' stomach to drop. "Superbia, we do not delay further. I feel weak as it is; the time has come, at long last."

She turned then and led them off away from the lighthouse, the individual - what Alexis imagined, based on the chest she banged against as she was shoved along with them, to also be a woman - called Superbia keeping a firm hand on her throat to prevent any possible cry for help. It didn't stop her from looking, however, for any soul roaming the darkened island save their party - anyone at all who could possibly call security. There was no one, however, and even if there were she wasn't sure she would be able to see them; the thick mist that appeared to follow this woman when it was convenient for her limited the expanse of her sight, and most likely the sight of the random student, guard, or school personnel who would assist her should there be any. It wasn't difficult to be discouraged though, even after the negligible success the blonde had at escaping earlier, by their destination; they headed into the forest.

The hold Superbia had on her was too strong for her to shake off, the teen decided, and so she had bee n placing all her hope in someone coming to her rescue. But there was simply no possibility of encountering such a someone in the forest of Duel Academy, nor was there the reassurance that should she manage to slip away later she could find her way back to safety. The woods were massive, spanning the entire island; she did not know all or most of their contents, and she imagined that to all but the experienced traveler or botanist most of the expanse looked exactly the same. However this path which her abductors chose, despite the small likelihood of it, seemed oddly familiar to Alexis, and the further along they traveled the surer she became that she had taken this route before. A miniscule fraction of her worry dissipated; they were taking her to the abandoned dormitory, a location she knew well.

Even in the dark, her vision confirmed their destination as she saw the familiar structure of the crumbling dorm become clear as they neared it, faint moonlight reflected off the domed roof in the front. Superbia hoisted her over the cautionary rope at the entrance, perhaps the most useless deterrent Sheppard could have chosen to keep curious onlookers away, and as they drew close to the rather intact front doors (considering the overall state of the building) Alexis couldn't help but wonder why she never noticed there was anyone here - why _no one_ ever noticed these people were here. How they got onto the island and how they lived completely undisturbed until they ventured out in direct contact with another person was a mystery to her, and a decidedly uncomfortable one. She had been to the dormitory many times, looking for clues in Atticus' disappearance, and she knew that Zane had done the same. Even Alicia and Jaden (thus implying Syrus and Chumley) had made infrequent visits to the ruin of a structure, and yet not one of them noticed anyone living there? It seemed unlikely.

When her eyes adjusted to the interior lighting - that is, an array of flickering light from numerous candles and lit oil where the bulbs of wall sconces once rested - the girl was nearly struck with disbelief. The candles had not been there at the time of her last visit - she consoled herself with that - but the room didn't seem so cluttered as it used to, though she didn't imagine much had changed. Somehow when there was light, no matter what hall they dragged her through, the dormitory didn't seem so far away from the state in which it was whenever people had lived there...officially via the school, that is. The dust on the carpet wasn't entirely dust, as she had always imagined it to be, for instead it was, in the dark, the shadows of depressions made by _frequent_ foot traffic - if she had only looked closer, she would have wondered early on why it seemed someone spent a decent amount of time there. If only she had noticed...she would have done something - she knew it! Though after blaming herself for that she stopped and thought a little further, eventually consoled when she realized that she had no idea what she would have done if she was supposedly more commonsensible. She couldn't tell the chancellor or any of her professors because it would be admitting her part in breaking the school's strict policy not to venture into the dorm at all, and telling Zane (the only eligible student) likely wouldn't amount to anything. If they had gone and looked around, they would have run into these people...whose numbers, by the looks of things, were not limited to two.

"We begin the shift now!" the green-eyed leader, from what Alexis deduced, shouted, apparently to others within the building. This was later confirmed as she named them in giving her orders. "Make preparations - we will commence in the underground chamber! Avaritia, array the candles before the mirrors - douse the base of the grandest looking glass in oil! As you know..." She paused, apparently waiting for either a response of affirmation that her order was in progress or for the next order to come to her. It was still indeterminable by the time she next spoke. "Acedia, pray you do something... Bring Ira to the chamber and see that she does not leave us; you both ought witness the transformation!" She turned to Superbia then and shook her head with another amused sigh. "Superbia I do implore you _not _to mar her...or kill her, at that..."

The woman behind Alexis hissed and, for the first time, spoke. "Do not instruct me, Luxuria; I know full well the art of detaining a girl..."

It appeared she was displeased, unnaturally so, with the implication that she didn't know what she was doing, or at the very least wasn't completely sure how tightly she was holding on. To said girl, however, it mattered none; Superbia had let up just enough to snap at her leader for her to scream without the stifling effects of mild strangulation. She did her best to give it her all, fearing that it would be the only chance she got to do so before taken to what she assumed was the basement Luxuria mentioned - where stone walls would undoubtedly mute any noise she made, as far as those outside the dormitory were concerned, though in the end it was only a split second of a screech before the offended woman's hand tightened around her trachea again. It was enough, though, to assure her that she had done all she could and give her the necessary fraction of a percent needed to entertain the possibility of a rescue, and so she let out a hiss of disdain laced with mild satisfaction.

Luxuria, to Alexis' mild dismay, was decidedly amused by her incessant fire but also apparently in some sort of a hurry, and so she refrained from commenting in favor of heading down the hall towards the entrance to the basement, letting Superbia drag the girl along at her heels. Upon arrival, Alexis had to admit to herself that however mysterious she found the situation previously, this - the arrangement of what seemed to be an occult ritual - easily topped the charts of eerie, as it were, and her previous anxiety was doubled. It wasn't that she exactly believed in the existence or realized practice of dark arts - even with Banner's instruction, she always felt the effects of "spells" had more to do with their victim's psychologically believing they worked rather than actually taking effect - but the object of this particular spell - the "shift," as Luxuria had called it - was not important to her. Rather she was concerned that in pursuit of whatever end the people here would harm here, deluded into thinking that doing so, perhaps even taking her life, would amount to something useful. Whether their spells worked or not was negligible; whether or not their insanity caused them to kill her wasn't.

The room was arranged for some activity to take place in the center; the "grandest" mirror of the eight total in the room was positioned there and stood at approximately five and a half feet, including the two-foot base which was currently dripping with, most likely, the oil previously mentioned. The other seven mirrors were arranged on mismatched end tables, most likely what the party could find in the dorm, about the room in an oval shape, two candles on either side of them. There were also candles on small makeshift shelves chiseled into the wall, only large enough to serve as platforms for one light, and two actual standing candlesticks marking the "entrance" of the oval, each outfitted with three lit candles. The result was a room illuminated enough to get a feel for the oddly immense size of it and navigate without wondering where everything was but yet still too dark in the corners and upper reaches to make out the details of the stone walls.

The light was enough, however, for Alexis to clearly make out three figures standing against the wall, though not idly so. The smallest of them - a very short girl who looked to be no older than twelve with deep red hair - was fidgeting where she stood as though being there angered her, and when Luxuria flashed a cold smile to her she snarled and drove her fist into the wall. The blonde was shocked - the blow actually cracked stone - and in an attempt not to do anything to possibly draw that sort of attention to herself, she focused on another figure, also female though easily twenty years of age, standing a few feet away and (apparently, with no regard for how inappropriate it was given the circumstances) admiring one of the mirrors rather obsessively, in particular the silver frame. She felt Alexis' eyes on her, though how remains unanswered, and narrowed her yellow eyes while emitting a low growl as if to warn her not to try and separate them - the mirror and herself. She dragged her nails over the glassy surface dominantly, mahogany hair hanging frighteningly close to the candle flame as she leaned over, but she did so with total disregard for that and opted to focus her energy on protecting the mirror.

"Oh...Avaritia, your hair has caught fire."

The comment came from the third woman there - the only one who was truly doing nothing as she stood, peacefully, beside the shortest girl. Apparently she had some sense of what was going on about her, despite the dreamy look in her sky-blue eyes, for at the very moment she commented, the yellow-eyed woman, Avaritia, drew back from the mirror to pat out the flame that had gravitated from the wick onto the tips of her hair. Yet despite what Alexis would have considered an experience to take permanently to heart, she turned back to the mirror with the same look of crazed adoration as before and no doubt would have resumed exactly what she was doing before...if Luxuria did not take the opportunity to command total attention, that was, as the party of three, including the unwilling member, reached the center of the room.

"Perfect...we begin at once! Hold the girl in place, Superbia; we do not wish to be interrupted."

Superbia was offended, once again, and scoffed at the comment before finding greater interest in her reflection. "I have a great deal of experience, as you know. She will not escape."

It was true - the lack of hope the girl had to escape with any sort of immediacy, for she could not speak to the woman's experience in this field, as it were. However a scuffling from what sounded like the floor above caught her attention and in all the madness she dared look up towards the entrance, hoping to see someone standing there. The doorway was empty, but the scuffling remained and drew closer - coming for her, she could only blissfully imagine. For that reason - that hope that someone was coming - Alexis looked away and returned her attention to Luxuria, though still struggling against her captor on the off chance that she was able to slip away. The chartreuse-eyed woman was speaking something that she could not understand - something in a foreign tongue. There were times in her speech - spell chant, she gathered - that the student was sure the words were Latin, but then there were others when she ceased to recognize any origin at all. They were mystery chants - as unknown as speaking in tongues - and for once she wished she'd read ahead in her Alchemic Studies class. Perhaps there was something about these people and their cult activity that was well-known in the occult community so that _when_ she escaped (she was rather confident now, thanks to the footsteps just beyond the door) she could have some evidence with which law enforcement of some kind - police from the mainland or security on the island - could track down the offenders. She tried to memorize the words but had little success, as unknown as they were, yet ceased in her efforts when the chanting stopped.

Luxuria's gaze was glowing again as it settled directly on the girl's eyes, and behind its possessed front there was no concealing heinous intent. She reached for her then, shadows circling about her outstretched hand, and Alexis drew in a shaky breath out of fear rather than necessity. She struggled against Superbia again and though she had better luck than the first first attempts she was unable to free herself - unable to stop whatever was to happen next. She could be certain of the supernatural now - the shadows responding to the woman's menacing call were proof that Banner was correct in his lectures - but it wasn't on her mind. Even her salvation, the footsteps that had not stopped and drew closer still as another teen crept towards the activity in the room, did not register in her head; she was utterly panicked, and when Luxuria next spoke, she screamed without even understanding the words.

"Meus visio pro vestrum."

She could probably piece together what that meant, but it didn't matter to her at this point to even try; her first priority was to put as much distance between her and Luxuria as possible, for it seemed that whatever result they sought would only come once the shadows on her hand made contact with her form. Screeching as loud as her sore throat would allow, she twisted wildly against Superbia with a similar result; she achieved some in that it took the woman an arm around her waist and a tight hand in her hair to keep her still and in the path of the spell-caster's hand, but it did nothing in terms of actually escaping. Someone shouted for her close by but she didn't notice - she couldn't even turn her head to look in the direction from whence the voice came. Her eyes were seemingly unable to look away from advancing green ones and locked on them even as she screamed in terror, wishing she could shut them and avoid at least looking at the woman who was going to cause her harm.

And then there was a sudden feeling of comfort - something that broke the contact she had with Luxuria's eyes. The blonde's eyelids drooped over her own golden orbs the moment they could, the burn behind them indicative of the fact that she hadn't blinked since the other moved towards her, but for a brief moment she did not need to see her rescuer. She felt it; there were arms around her, shielding her from the shadows that ought by now be just reaching their back, and with a sigh she dared relax. It was short-lived, her peaceful state, for the screams from the other women to their leader as though warning her not to proceed brought her back to reality, and the scent of her protector which she inhaled in one frantic breath identified who had come to her rescue. By the time she opened her eyes to look, however, the familiar face was marred by shock; the shadowy haze spreading over his cerulean eyes were enough to suggest that Luxuria's ritual had been completed, though not with the intended victim.

Zane had dashed in front of her. Whatever the effects of this ritual were to be, he was the one to suffer them.

Luxuria shrieked. Whether it was part of the ritual process or if she had discovered her initial plan had been foiled, Alexis couldn't tell, but the shocked faces of the other women in the room were enough to suggest it was most likely a combination of both, leaning towards the latter. The girl didn't have the luxury of enough time to study her, however, for Superbia shoved her away and onto the floor in favor of approaching her leader to ensure she was of sound body, yet the body of the woman Alexis knew as Luxuria only shook violently for a moment before falling completely limp in her companion's arms. That was not surprising, if Alexis was to associate the screaming with a certain level of pain. What was mysterious, however, was how Superbia dropped the body to the floor as though it were worthless and turned her attention to where Zane stood. At first the female Obelisk was sure she was going to take a hold of him in the same way she had her - perhaps, though it wrenched her heart to imagine - punish him for the role he played in seemingly killing the other woman, but Superbia did no such thing. Instead her approach was careful, treading lightly upon metaphorical egg shells, and her tone was just the same.

"Luxuria..."

Alexis would have laughed in disbelief at the address - that she was using the dead woman's name to refer to Zane - but she had enough sense left in her not to for fear of an angry lash in return. However, what she was not prepared for was the male teen's response; not only did he not deny the implication but he seemed entirely accepting of it, raising a hand in an unimportant direction as a sort of signal. He spoke then but his voice was different; it was still what she would recall as Zane's, but there was an underlying pitch to it that was lighter - more feminine. She gasped a little as she pondered further; it was reminiscent of...

"Bring me a mirror."

The large mirror was broken - the flame set beneath it had worn the bottom and cracked the glass all the way to the top, and so Alexis studied the scene in horror as Avaritia surrendered her looking glass - a hand mirror - to the outstretched hand. It was accepted without regard for who brought it and immediately put to use; Zane looked over his own reflection, at first merely staring - surprised. Yet the longer he looked the more content he appeared to become until he was grinning at the sight, and in a flurry of blue hair he whipped around towards Superbia again while shrugging a little toward Alexis on the floor.

"Get her up, won't you?"

Superbia wasted no time in doing just that; she strode behind the girl and hoisted her up by her arm before lacing a hand in her hair again to hold her in place. Looking at Zane now and feeling the aura of maddened cruelty radiating off of him, Alexis was relatively sure she was more frightened than she had been at any earlier time that evening. The teen who was once one of her closest friends - gentle and caring at his core - seemed to be entirely absent from this person, even though that wasn't at all possible; at the very least it _shouldn't_ be possible.

"Z-Zane...?" she asked, her nerves overcoming the natural diction she possessed since childhood. The moment the name fell from her trembling lips, though, she knew it was the wrong name. Her eyes blurring with tears - what resulted from the rather noxious emotional cocktail of fear, repulsion, and a terrible sort of awe - she steeled herself against her rapidly growing anxiety so that she could speak again without the slightest stutter. "Luxuria."

The teen smiled at her, though with no sense of comfort offered or intended. "You and your friend here - you have ruined my plans as though they are unimportant; you clearly do not appreciate just what exactly it takes for me to exist. The sort of tireless searching for the perfect body...I need not attempt to convey it to you, but my frustration only grows with each unworthy candidate of whom I must dispose. And when I do believe I have found it...you slip away. However..." She, for only Zane was male and Zane she was not, paused for a moment to look at her new reflection again in the mirror. "...I dare say I am not entirely displeased with the result. I have never taken a male form to date; perhaps you will have inspired a little exploration on my part - time will tell. As to the present...I must decide, though, if this face suits me or if yours still presents the threat of competition. I must be perfect."

Alexis spat at her. "Zane was perfect; you will never be. Beauty is nothing to time, and yours will come with an invitation to Hell."

Luxuria chuckled at her rather confident outburst. "But beauty is, darling; it is everything I have, and not even time dares disturb it. Why not be grateful; I shall forever preserve your friend's face, so long as his body remains my asylum." She paused again and looked at the mirror. "Yours, however, I cannot protect. Others ought not look to you, my dear, yet your visage commands them to do the very thing. You see..." Her hand tightened on the mirror. "...it simply must be destroyed."

Without allowing the girl any amount of time to ponder what she meant, Luxuria slammed the mirror into the left side of Alexis' youthful face, breaking the glass against her cheekbone and sending her crashing to the floor. The younger Obelisk's vision was blurry to the point of absolute uselessness, but what she did manage to glimpse were the shards of glass from both the larger mirror and the recently broken one, all glittering in the faint candlelight, on the floor directly in her path. This did not, however, enable her to break her fall before her cheek, opposite the already injured one, made contact with the ground littered with such glass, and if she were not suffering the early effects of a concussion she would have screamed as it ripped through her skin. There was blood everywhere - she could feel the liquid warmth pooling around her face, but she didn't have the energy to lift herself away from it. It wouldn't have mattered; Luxuria seized her hair and pulled her head up, surveying the damage to see if it was enough to suit her fancy. It decidedly wasn't; she shoved her face back down onto the rocks and broken glass twice more with force before looking her over again and sighing to herself.

"Still, a terrible shame. I was so desperately looking forward to being blonde this time..." She stood to her full height - at seven inches over five foot, most likely the tallest she ever had been - and kicked Alexis' crumpled body towards Superbia. "Give her to Invidia; I'm quite sure she will still be able to...appreciate her."

The appropriate woman moved to comply with her leader's request, not that Luxuria remained watching to notice her. She turned on her heel, musing on how uncomfortable she found her current attire to be and other seemingly trivial matters regarding her new form; her work in the basement was complete. It was time for her to leave and get a feel for her new self, which she had to admit was not the worst self she could have imagined. She was disappointed, however, that she did not get her intended target despite this; aside from the fact that she did not enjoy others dismantling her plans, she could not deny that the blonde girl was strikingly beautiful.

She grinned. She should emphasize the presence of the past tense in that remark; the blonde girl _was_ beautiful.

Avaritia was the only figure who moved to leave with her, as Superbia was still in the process of getting Alexis off the floor while making contact with as little blood as possible; the other two hadn't moved an inch from their positions against the wall since Luxuria decided to attack the Obelisk. Not fazed by the level of violence displayed before her (for it was not exactly the first), she grinned a little as she spoke.

"I think it's a lovely form you have," she said in a rather compassionate tone for one so twisted as she.

"I agree," Luxuria replied. "I am confident that I will be able to thrive with this face. I am merely a little upset that my expectations were not precisely met."

"Never mind your precise expectations! This one's beauty is quite unconventional, I find; I will venture to say he was better suited to your needs than that girl." She paused for a moment to enjoy the small smile her words induced. "Do look at your face now - not hers. After all, you possess the most alluring angel eyes."

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Translation: "My face for yours." (Meus visio pro vestrum)

I could have completely missed the mark for this chapter in terms of what it was meant to accomplish, but at the very least... I got the explanation for the story title in there! 'Tis a victory none ought try take from me...not that anyone would...

Thank you for reading! I admit I am in a bit of a bind, though, as to how I want to handle this story. I was reading through some of the earlier chapters and...I swear, all you kind reviewers must go straight to Heaven because they're bad. Very bad, even; Devil's own (all right, maybe that last one's a bit much...). Point being, I was thinking that I might want to revise.

Now if I did that, I could use one of two methods: replacement or restart. If I do replacement, I can just type up new chapters and replace them one by one without officially changing the story or taking it down. I lean towards this only because...I don't lose bragging rights as to the number of reviews I have (I'm so immoral... X_X) and because it seems simpler. If I restart it, however, I would take the story down and...well, rewrite it. I could do a total rewrite which would take the longest, but the chapters would all be updated at once by the time it comes back, or I could do the shorter time-frame replace-rewrite and rewrite the first chapter before posting it again, then use the replacement method as I go along.

In case that last one doesn't make much sense...it does because I would change accounts if I did it. Now I'll admit my reason for wanting to change is rather frivolous - I don't like my username - but I'm not opposed to a complete shift in account.

If you have any preferences, please tell me! Otherwise, thank you again for reading and I would greatly appreciate a review!


	30. Chapter 30

Hello everyone kind enough to continue reading; I present the next chapter! Again, I apologize for the delay, but as of late I think I've done decently in updating with some sort of speed... I would say it's because things are finally getting moving, and we're looking at some action in the very near future!

Also, I just want to take a moment to thank Zoelle for reviewing every new chapter I post! Normally I PM everyone who reviews or adds me/my stories to their alerts/favorites, but I haven't been able to since Zoelle doesn't log in to review... I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful! Know that every time I get that little email telling me this story was reviewed I smile - makes me think that I'm getting it done right as I wanted it...and I will say it prompts me to update sooner (does that make me a terribly shallow person, I wonder?)

I hope you all enjoy!

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Had she thought about it earlier on, Camula would have assumed she would flee the apparently not quite so abandoned dormitory the moment she awoke in her hiding place, but now that she did so - awake - she found it would have been a most foolish idea. Often she overlooked the simple yet oh so valuable aspects of planning - the little problems over which she had no personal control, and this was one of those times. It was not as though she suddenly found herself devoid of the intense desire to escape, as it were; on the contrary, rising from the floor in the musty room and recalling the painful sorcery that had rendered her unconscious in the first place, she could say she was more desperate than ever to leave. It was entirely nature's doing - what kept her from simply maneuvering out of the first window she could find and flying back to her castle.

She had been removed from the world for a fair amount of time, it seemed; the sun had come out.

Initially, the vampiress had cursed her luck for not rising but an hour or so earlier, noticing how it was apparently just past dawn, but as she sat waiting for sunset to come while at the same time anxiously listening for the return of those residing in the building, she slowly began to realize it only hindered her further to worry about it. What use did it serve her to criticize how her body reacted to certain spells? There was no helping it, obviously, and she certainly was not volunteering to hang around the area long enough if there even was a chance that she might develop a higher tolerance. A relatively magic-savvy individual herself, Camula did not deny her curiosity; it was rare that she had no extensive knowledge of any type of magic, after all, and so this mysterious force did beckon her closer to engage in study - to discover precisely what it was and from where it derived its power. Most likely this study would occur, but not here - not crouching in hiding in an old building where at any moment the possessor of such power may happen upon her. When she returned to her castle that night - she was quite optimistic about that - she would research in the library; somewhere in all the books gathered by her vampire peers years ago there ought be, at the bare minimum, a partial answer awaiting her.

Still, if for some reason there was none, she supposed it would be rewarding to ask Amnael about it; he specialized in the occult, after all.

Thinking of how the other Shadow Rider could possibly react to her question reminded her that at the moment they - perhaps Amnael himself but more likely only those companions who tended to reside in the castle on the lake for the time being - were undoubtedly worried (or at least curious) as to her current whereabouts. She would have to devise some way of telling them what had happened - some way that wouldn't stray from the truth but not completely embarrass her, in terms of how helpless she found herself - ignorant and powerless - upon the sorceress' attack the night before. It wasn't as though she feared they would not believe her; they ought be familiar enough with strange magic to know that the possibility of what happened to her being true is more than likely, but she was concerned that there were no words to properly describe exactly what she knew, especially as unsure about the affair she herself was. What was there to tell? Someone tried to see though her - tried to reverse her own powers (and had succeeded despite being foiled by her quick thinking) and she had passed out from the stress on her mind. That was not descriptive; she could barely describe the people who had done it.

With a shake of her head, she decided an explanation filled with so many holes as that would not only be unideal for her purposes but should not be put forth at all; with the time she had until dusk, she owed her associates at least a little inquest of her own to try and illuminate some of the mystery. Of course she must tread lightly; she could not draw undue attention to herself without knowing the capabilities of her opponents, but she did not envision it too be a terribly daunting task. She resolved to listen very carefully - move as little as possible while allowing each and every distinct sound resonate in her sensitive ears so that she did not need to particularly see her distant surroundings to know what they were. As she experienced it, the most difficult part of her expedition into the unknown would be avoiding a great deal of sun exposure; the building was certainly not lacking in rather large windows, though apparently after construction the architect hadn't the time or call to invest in any shutters.

The sun was not such a terrible fate in and of itself; the commonly held belief (amongst humans in any case) that vampires would somehow spontaneously combust in response to the slightest solar contact was only a popular misconception. She assumed the humans had, while attempting to annhilate the species, taken to spreading such shameless and, in her opinion, strange rumors in order to give the people who could join in the persecution some sort of proof that vampires were creatures of Hell and ought be destroyed. She was no fool - the mass executions all dated back to decidedly more religious times, and so in those days to have such an aversion to sunlight could easily be associated with having an aversion to a "proper" God and an alignment with the "Devil" of which they spoke. It worked - terrible as it was, she gave the charismatic leaders credit for that; they succeeded in misleading the common man and woman for years after their deaths, and it did not even matter that a great deal of vampires managed to be murdered in the daylight by human hands, apparently staving off their fate to burst into flame in the sunlight for the time it took for them to die by much more mechanical means. She couldn't exactly say that all of such means made more immediate sense than the idea of the killer sun, when looked at in a whole; honestly, she was reluctant to believe that driving a stake of sharpened wood through one's heart would cause fatal harm to vampires alone - it sounded like the sort of thing that would dramatically shorten a human's life as well...and any other animal that depended on a heart to live, at that. At least it seemed logical enough.

She shook her head; it was unpleasant to imagine - the deaths of vampires that she could not separate from the hysteria centuries earlier against her kin - and if ever there was a time when such painful considerations were necessary, it was not the present. She did not allow herself the moment to wonder if perhaps she was being a tad too rigid in that conclusion; there may be some natural connection to the strange power the mysterious woman from the night before had displayed and the undoubtedly strange power she required to revive her people. What had occurred before she drifted into unconsciousness was...agonizing, after carefully choosing what best described the feeling. It was agony for her to experience and she doubted she was alone in that; her bat, before its passing, was not accustomed to shrieking in so ghastly a tone for anything less than torture. That being said, Camula couldn't think that this sort of power - even in degree alone and not of the same make - would be what she required to breathe new life into the vampire race as a whole. The thought of subjecting anyone, perhaps going so far as to include those personally responsible for her former companions' deaths, to such an extreme amount of suffering made her sick - she knew without attempt that she was incapable of following through.

She instructed her mind to drop the subject now; it frightened her entirely too much to wonder if she would fail to remember this truth until she had countered it.

Placing a hand on the lounge to steady herself, Camula stood and stepped quietly over to the door, listening for any sort of sounds coming from the hallway. There were none, but she listened a little while longer; it was difficult for one to be too careful in any situation, and with the sun growing brighter in the sky she prepared to air on the side of utmost caution. The rays filtering in through the window did nothing more than raise the surface temperature of her icily pale skin in a mildly irritating manner, but she was aware of the broader implications; she was only half of herself while exposed, even in the slightest amount. It was not simple to notice - impossible, if one was not aware of the grand scale of vampire power - but her abilities were greatly depleted by solar energy. That was precisely why she must find some sort of way to occupy her time until sunset; should she have the misfortune of encountering trouble and need to make an escape, she was not confident that she would be able to manage it as effectively as circumstances would require. She could not call her bats to her defense - loyal as they were, they could not bear to search for her in the daylight hours - nor could she alter her own form for easier transportation; her reduced stamina would make flight all too exhausting to for her wings to carry her far.

There was one benefit to this that she immediately recalled; unable to fully exercise her powers at present, it would be impossible to see through her eyes again. Of course, she held firm doubts that such a task could be accomplished unless her bat had somehow survived its last trial.

A thought struck her - something that she would mind as she did some rather covert investigating into the enemy's lair, as it were; she ought try and locate the creature. Her heart knew it was dead - she remembered the relief washing over her when its shrieking drew to a sudden close - but somehow she did not think its departure from the natural world had been given the due respect it deserved. There were many people who would not agree with what they may label her "overzealous dedication to not but a common, flying rodent" (without thinking hard on the subject, a name came to mind) yet that sort of callous and ignorant behavior gave her no cause to reconsider. That bat, although not in humanoid form, was her friend; it had entrusted her with its safekeeping and loyalty and to fail to recognize that after its death was to enter a sad state of complete self-absorption. She would not sink to that level - common morality was ingrained well enough in her to be certain of that. Thus it was settled; she would find her pet and give it the sort of farewell it deserved...assuming what remained of it was relatively accessible.

Knowing that there was only one way to find out, the vampire slowly opened the thankfully quiet door and crept out into the hall. It was much easier to see than the last time she attempted to navigate the area, though accepting that caught her a little off guard. She had the gift of seeing perfectly clearly through the most opaque of shadows, and so the fact that the building had appeared completely dark even to her eyes earlier only further indicated the supernatural quality of whatever presence resided there. That was not to say the hall was particularly worth seeing, however; the walls were peeling, the crown moulding at the top chipped and having descended to the dingy floor in some places, and every one of the un-lit chandeliers was crooked to some extent ranging from moderate disturbance to near inversion of what was meant to be. That being said, there still was a peaceful beauty to the manner in which the dust particles littering the atmosphere glowed when struck by the sun; while there were dim concentrations of light in the form of rather visible rays to represent the areas in which the dust was in greatest airborne amounts, those concentrations cast off light and sent it about the room, glittering wildly. It was magical.

It was short lived - the wonderment. Camula chided herself for being so easily distracted in a few moments, for a seemingly soft, small mass - much darker than anything else in the hall that had previously captured her interest - reminded her that there was indeed a good reason for why she was in the hallway at all. Her first few steps towards it were tentative - cautious as she had earlier decided she ought be - but the moment she better recognized precisely what it was was the same moment that she unwisely threw such caution to the wind and all but rushed forward. Flying over the surface of the worn floor, she barely noticed taking two actual steps before kneeling beside the form and snatching it into her arms. The sensation of soft fur against her skin - plush where the figure was rounder and with a more similar feel to suede in the outermost expanses - was enough to solidly confirm her worst fears. It was indeed her pet.

Unfortunately, she could consider it a mild leap of faith that she settled on accepting that fact. She operated under the assumption that her bat was the only possible suspect for the description she witnessed - the presence of fur and such - for there was no identifying it by specific appearance alone. As she surveyed the damage, her breath caught in her throat; the poor thing was mutilated beyond all recognition. Every joint in the creature's body seemed to be dislocated; its wings no long ran smoothly even overlooking the fact that they, especially the left, were almost upside-down where they attached to the trunk of the body, and in all honesty it was a sickening sight to behold. The creature's head - immediately drawing the eye to the awkwardly harsh angle of its neck (and what appeared to be a sharp protruding bone lurking just out of sight while having not broken skin by some oddly fortunate circumstances) - indicated cause of death; a broken neck. However that diagnosis was not initially simple for Camula to admit; as fatally as the bat was contorted into its excruciating position, her countenance could hardly withstand the thought process needed to imagine _how_ that position came about. It was not as though it took creative thinking on her part; seeing as the culprit had not laid a physical hand on the now broken body, the resulting condition could only have occurred if the bat itself, driven to madness, writhed so uncontrollably that it managed to kill itself. Easy to imagine in the form of language, it was not nearly as simple to visualize.

The woman was thankful for that.

"My pet..." she dared whisper to the corpse, cradling it as she stood once more. "What is this cursed force that has taken you from me...? What purpose did your suffering serve...?"

The creature did not answer. The light breeze in the room only gave the appearance of it twitching its wings; the movement was likely more than it would have been able to accomplish had it been alive. Camula, however, did not expect a reply and thus was not disappointed. She did not allow herself the time to dwell on the sense of loss she experienced - not yet. First she had to return to safer ground, and with no immediately better option available she turned and strode back to the room in which she had spent the night, figuring that it would be about as secure by day as it had proven to be at an earlier hour. Still she knew she was not terribly concerned about being discovered in any room at this point; during the entirety of her short excursion to her bat's previous location and back to her room, as it were, again, she neither heard nor otherwise detected any movement in the building that may constitute a threat.

When she returned to her room, she looked about it and thought over what sort of selection she had in giving the creature a proper funeral - underdone and informal as it may be. She wished to bury it outside - in the forest somewhere or perhaps beside its former peers wherever the landscape permitted, but she felt the risk to step out into the uncomfortable sun (and whatever may await her on the outside) unprepared was too great to ignore. That being said, she settled on the next best thing; a simulated burial, compliments of the old and decidedly under-watered plant at the end of the lounge. She headed over and began clearing enough dirt out of the way from behind - in the event that she had to suddenly find cover - while resting her bat in her lap for the time being. Usually she was far from inclined to associate with such uncleanly practices as digging with not but her hands for spades (however simple this soil, in its parched state, was to work with), but since there was nothing at all usual about this situation, from her perspective, her reaction ought be accordingly peculiar.

Depositing her pet in its freshly dug grave was more difficult than she imagined it would be; it was as though doing so was some sort of punishment for the sin she'd committed in leading it to its death. She knew it wasn't reasonable to think along those lines for the bat had followed her suggestion to look around willingly and she had been ignorant of the danger involved in typically so simple a task, but the guilt was hard to shake. It clung to her with ill intent, constantly whispering how differently she _might_ have done things - how her pet, had she proven herself a better caretaker, _might _have survived. She found herself whispering responses to the seemingly endless accusations as she gently folded layers of arid soil over the body, somehow managing to do so without opening her eyes more than a few times. It would be more logical to watch what she was doing, but the moment she blinked...the energy required to reveal her crimson orbs once more had been spent. It took a fair amount of time to rebuild it, though once she did it never did appear to be worth the effort. What use was there in the gift of sight when all there was to see was a little mound in the back of a dusty flowerpot, topped by the withered remains of a severely neglected plant? None, she decided.

Collapsing a little against the dull ceramic, she sighed and attempted to pay her respects without knowing exactly what sort of silent sentiment was appropriate; was it proper to overpower her creature's last memory with her own self-pity? It would seem not; she strove to focus on nothing but the appreciation she had for the short time her pet was in her life, though it was a notable endeavor. She did not open her eyes again; she much preferred, after consideration, to grieve in darkness. It was a more familiar place than this.

Apparently, mourning had a way of either rendering her completely immune to the affects of time passing her by or chasing the sun across the sky much faster than it was usually inclined to travel alone. When Camula did at last brave opening her eyes to study the scene, it was dark - she almost wondered if her eyes were in fact still closed and her mind thought it amusing to play tricks on her. However there was no denying it - that she had allowed hours to pass in silence, kneeling at her bat's grave - yet she felt she would not attempt to. While it did indicate that she could make her escape without actually accomplishing any sort of investigating into the mysteries of the building - somewhere in the back of her mind she would feel a tad guilty about that - she felt she was content with doing so; her body was rather fatigued. Odd, she supposed, considering her strength was returning to her in full force as the moon grew brighter - and the hour later - overhead, but upon a second examination the woman could expect nothing else; it was an emotional sort of drain which she experienced, and that would take a decidedly longer amount of time to overcome. She doubted it was anything she could accomplish here, certainly once she factored in the growing uneasiness crawling up her spine.

For the first time in hours, she was sure she was not alone.

"I must make haste..." the vampire mused, glancing at the grave a final time before hurrying to the window and studying the surroundings outside. It was not exactly ideal for jumping out - while on the ground level, the cover of the forest was a fair run away - but at so late an hour she was willing to take the risk. She would have no trouble fleeing without detection, especially if she did not flee in humanoid form. Still, she did not leave just yet; she thought aloud once more. "Still...I feel this presence inviting me to stay... Cursed curiosity; so a bothersome a thing does not deserve such delay..."

Prepared as she was to conclude her small, self-deprecating rant and depart immediately, she did not. A scream ripped though her innermost thoughts and caused her to whip her form back around towards the direction from whence it came - down the hallway somewhere and not too far away. Without thinking in the meantime, she fled the room. Yet her destination was not the security of her castle, where logic had advised her to head; she was en route to the source of the voice. It was none of her business - not worth endangering herself or her chances of making it out of the building, but her heart in combination with a strangely vocal conscience would not allow her to ignore the desire to at least assess the situation. Perhaps... No; it was extremely likely that her enthusiasm, as it were, was closely linked to the fact that the scream piercing through the uncanny darkness bore a striking resemblance to her dearly departed pet's final wail of utmost agony. Her mind was made up; no creature deserved that fate, and she knew that should she not put an end to the monster intent on providing it, she could not dare lift her eyes again.

With little regard for the sound her heels made on the solid floor, Camula dashed into the hallway and in what she assumed was the proper direction. She did not know the construction of the building past the burial room of her loyal companion and the hall through which she all but ran, the expanse was an entirely unexplored territory, and if circumstances were different it would not be in her nature to embark so rashly on a potentially dangerous expedition. Yet these particular circumstances did not hinder her sense of discovery, and as the screams grew louder with each feverish step she took, she silently gave many thanks for that. Perhaps it was difficult to recall her precise nature - her compassion and dedication to proper behavior by which she distantly remembered abiding amongst her own kind centuries ago - with the zealousness with which she had a tendency to describe using the energy of others for her own purposes (leaving the morality of those purposes aside) on a regular basis. She could understand that. But here - unconcerned with anything save preventing the suffering of the individual - a woman, from what she could make of it at the moment - there were no such distractions. She was herself again, and it was plain for any willing observer to see.

It appeared she did not attain the sort of speed needed to reach the room before anyone else did, though as she spied the white-coated back of whoever rushed under the stone archway before she did, her heart relaxed a little. She did not slow her pace - she was intent on seeing what was being done so that her services may prove of some use if necessary - but the ambiance left behind the other was enough to indicate their intent to help rather than harm; they, whoever they were, had the same altruistic intentions as she. Yet by the time she reached the archway and dared her first few steps inside - noting the somewhat strange aspect of how a building of such modern construction led to, what she would consider, a decidedly primitive cave of a basement as she did so - the screaming had not ceased. She now feared for the safety of the woman and her alleged first rescuer (who did not appear to be terribly successful as such), and inspired by the newly enhanced concern she peered down over the stairs to get a better glimpse of the activity taking place at the bottom.

"_Some...ritual?_" Rather than be so bold as to whisper the question to herself, Camula was satisfied by repeating it mentally and reducing her run to a few cautious further steps. Something was wrong - something besides whatever sin was already being committed that harmed the screaming individual so - and not being able to put her finger on exactly what that something was gave her cause to think over her involvement again. She did not want to upset the situation with her presence, and it did not appear immediate action was required, at least by what her ears told her.

The shrieking had stopped - as far as the original victim was concerned, that was. There were others shouting now - other women and a young girl - whose volume in total nearly matched the intensity of the original wail, but for some reason the vampiress did not feel any sort of inclination to go to their aid. They did not seem so innocent as the others; the blonde figure restrained in the center of the room and the savior who came between her and, apparently, the fate that had been torturing her, were the only two people deserving of her aid. Yet as she allowed that thought to come to her, the dynamics shifted; after a drawn out lament of incomprehensible shrieks alone from the brunette woman who Camula deemed to be the culprit of both these young people's and her pet's assaults, the reassuring feeling coming from the first rescuer - the individual with teal hair - was gone. She could only survey the situation intently for a few minutes further, but in those minutes' time she was able to declare (within the confines of her own mind) with absolute certainty that the benevolent soul she first witnessed hurrying to his or her (for it was difficult to tell from her point of observation) peer's assistance had vanished and that the spirit of the cruel woman now lying still upon the floor had taken their place.

Of course, she needed no further confirmation than the precise moment when she hurriedly turned her eyes away - when the decidedly corrupted body attacked the young blonde woman with a savagery only attained by those not simply immoral but mad as well.

Camula's instinct was to rush to the young woman's defense; she was not one to survey violence as though it were somehow not as real as it truly was, but she managed to contain herself. It was painful - taking a step backward up the stairs rather than forward towards the scene - yet enough logic had returned to her to present a valid and convincing reason for her to keep her head about her and wait for a better opportunity to intervene. The numbers were not in her favor; taking the situation at face value, it was already five to her solitary one. Yet what worried her and truly prevented her from blind selflessness was the fact that she was not quite sure she ought take anything in this place at face value, namely the strength of her opponents. She knew that with the night sky somewhere overhead she was a formidable force and not to be reckoned with by the common individual, but after witnessing the apparently successful ritual before her, it was clear that the sort of laws applying to the common did not pertain to this case. These women had an affinity for magic - the dark arts, so to speak - and since Camula herself was not nearly as knowledgeable on the particular sort of magic or as to the extent of their supernatural power, it only made sense to proceed with great caution.

There would be a better time to step in - she could feel it - and so she speedily withdrew from the staircase altogether and shifted to her airborne form. It was much simpler to conceal herself, knowing that she would have to trail these people closely, with the assurance that should, by some ill fortune on her part, one of them turn in her direction, all they could possibly notice would be a strikingly common bat hanging from the dark ceiling of an abandoned shelter in the midst of a forest. There was nothing at all suspicious about that.

Still, however convinced the vampire was that these women (their leader in particular) heard no conscientious call to show any sort of mercy to their victims whatsoever, she allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of them simply imprisoning the blonde in solitude until she either died of her wounds (not difficult to imagine based on the severity of their appearance) or they determined it was no better use to them keeping her than it was setting her free. It was unlikely at first, but when the blonde was brought up the stairs and escorted - half-carried, actually - down another hallway to a locked room, the option of helping the girl escape in relative peace after she was left alone seemed oddly plausible. Camula was not so naïve as to rely solely on this possibility and not accompany the young woman in the event that things did not go as planned, however, and she wasted no time at all flying into the room the moment the door opened. It was a duly hurried action; without a word, the captor of both the blonde and, what Camula saw upon entering the room, another lady a few years older in appearance, slammed and locked the door abruptly.

As though...it was dangerous to leave it open.

It didn't make sense. The young woman was barely able to sit upright, laying in the same awkward and crumpled position in which she'd landed upon being quite literally thrown into the room, and her companion hadn't budged once in all the activity. On second thought, though, this lack of reaction was puzzling, and the more she dwelt on it the more Camula began to notice the perturbed feeling tickling her skin as she regarded the other woman in the room. There was something odd about her, even more apparent when she at long last lifted herself up and strode in slow, creeping steps toward the wounded blonde - something more than how unharmed she appeared for being the supposed captive of such a brutal keeper. The lack of bodily harm evident on her did not imply her appearance was comforting, and while it was not the cause of the vampire's newfound anxiety it certainly was a contributor. She was of an emaciated stature - no doubt a generous ninety-pound weight allowance for her undoubtedly five-foot-six frame - and sickly pale skin, yet the entirety of her form was in all a great deal hidden by her obsidian locks of very fine hair, the ends trailing in the dust on the floor like the remains of tattered spider webs. She outstretched a hand towards the blonde's quivering form, but the gleam in her emerald eyes was evident of neither pity nor concern.

It was hatred.

"You...are crying..." It was a statement, and despite how malicious the undertone in the soft voice was, the other managed to look up in response to it with the sort of expression that implied she hoped to find help in she who spoke. It was likely that her mind was spinning far too quickly to properly gage said speaker's malice intent, even as the hand found itself ghosting over the tips of her blonde hair. "Your hair...is so very beautiful..." She paused for a long while then - seemingly satisfied with the light caresses of blonde locks. Yet there was another flash of utter abhorrence in her gaze followed by words in an entirely new tone - an anguished shriek with the texture of sandpaper. "Give it to me!"

Her hand promptly tightened in the young woman's - the _girl's_, as Camula could now see with clarity - hair and gave a sharp tug backward as though she was truly attempting to rip it from her skull. To the vampire's horror, she was partially successful; when the girl, screaming at the initial shock and in the pain that followed, managed to fall away from her for a moment, it was plain to see a portion of her blonde locks falling away and to the floor separately. This did nothing to appease the assailant, however; she tore at the girl, trying to get at her hair again and catching her without any difficulty whatsoever. It was a complete unfair advantage; she was fully conscious and apparently enraged while this girl barely kept her mind in the present despite a full dedication of all energy to do so. She put forth no resistance, and even her shouts were beginning to mellow into groans as her throat grew dry and overworked; she no longer had the power to call for help. That was precisely how Camula knew she could not hold back any further; this madness had to stop.

Without relinquishing the element of surprise she possessed by shouting, Camula returned to her vampire form and shoved the offender away from the blonde, though unable to do so without having the girl lose another sparse handful of her hair in the process. She expected that her intervention would strike the woman as something to halt in her attacks momentarily, at least for the second it took to register how she had been interrupted, but that thought only revealed the degree to which the Shadow Rider underestimated the savagery of her opponent. The woman barely flinched before coming at her again with the same force she had mustered for her initial assault, and it took Camula a minute to steady herself before she was able to defend her position. It was delicate - she did not want any further harm to come to the teen lying motionless underneath the confrontation - but at the same time circumstance did not provide her with the ability to lessen the force behind her retaliation. She shoved the woman back again with similar results as it became increasingly clear that the only reasonable and permanent solution was to escape; this fight could not continue, for she would undoubtedly lose strength as the hour drew closer to dawn, and she could not be certain the other would weaken in the slightest. Her strength was unnatural.

With that in mind, she pulled the girl off the floor as carefully as she could manage and switched positions with her attacker, leaving the woman's back against the door while she scanned the wall for a getaway. There were no windows. However, she came to see that her initial finding was not exactly the case and that there was an opportunity available to her, if only she could buy herself a little more time. Upon closer inspection she could see the frame cut out in the wall - even some parts of the broken glass - but it was boarded over on the outside. She was not too discouraged, though; it appeared that whoever had been hired to secure the window had not done the most worthy work in their career, for the boards were worn with age (obviously not the finest wood available for the purpose) and revealed traces of the outdoor scenery through small gaps between them. There was certainly room for them to break, if enough force was applied, and she knew just the...peers she could ask to come to her aid.

Camula allowed her eyes to glow red as she put the request through, but in the meantime she knew that she still had to protect both the blonde and herself until the providers of her escape route arrived. It should not take long...but then again, the black-haired woman was unrelenting in her outbursts and it seemed that no amount of damage she inflicted made any difference to her - as though she were entirely too overcome by madness to devote the slightest consideration to her own pain. That is not to say Camula entirely abandoned the notion of trying to inflict such pain, however; as the woman drew close again - not even reaching for her but once more for the blonde hair she so unnaturally coveted - the vampire bared her fangs in fury and raked all five nails of her right hand across her face, driving her back by a heel in the thigh at the same time. The woman howled; whether it was in rage at having been separated from the object of her desire - the hair - or at last having recognized the amount of pain inflicted upon her, Camula could not say for certain, but if it was indeed the latter then her wail was quite appropriate. The girl's blood was not alone upon the floor - the concentration of slightly dulled red liquid and fragments of torn skin under the vampire's fingernails provided enough corroboration for supposing that - yet even so it did not faze the other woman. She raised her head and locked emerald eyes with scarlet ones, and without the slightest alteration in her movements to suggest that the bleeding lines carved into her skin hindered her to any degree, she attacked again.

The vampiress acted in the only way that she could - she lashed out and forced her back again - but this time it was with a twitching of her ears. She felt she heard something in the distance - something very similar to the sound of salvation, should the comforting sound of wingbeats be rightfully described as such - but on a more immediate level she turned towards another sound coming from the door. The lock clicked and the knob twisted; someone was coming inside. Apparently their physical duel had made an unusual amount of noise, for she did not get the sense that such evaluations were a common occurrence.

"Invidia, you certainly are making quite a lot of noise... Are you not enjoying yourself...?" It was the leader from the center of the room, now occupying the body of the teenage individual whose possession Camula witnessed. She - though the vampire, upon an inspection of the chest, knew the body was male - blinked at the sight of an unexpected guest before chuckling a little to herself and calling to her supporters. Initially they went unseen but entered the room behind the cerulean-haired teen once summoned. "My, my; what have we here? A do-gooder trying to stave off Invidia? I wonder, must you lack any regard whatsoever for your own life to be 'holy'? If so, I continue to be satisfied knowing that I am not." She studied the other woman - Invidia, as she was called - before continuing. "I will say, though; you do put forth a decent fight... It is unfortunate that you must die now; had I made your acquaintance before committing to this body, I might have taken a liking to you..."

Glaring at the woman as mightily as she could, Camula hissed and backed away from the threat, holding the body of the blonde girl securely against her form. She was not foolish enough to combat the group of these women together - Invidia alone was trouble enough - yet that did not diminish her hope of escaping at all. As if on cue - in perfect time with another threatening step forward on the part of the leader - the vampire ducked away from the window as the wood covering it broke apart and what glass remained shattered. It was loud - there was a ringing in her ears as she looked up for the opportunity to flee through the now un-obstructed opening in the wall - but she did not attribute that to the glass alone; the majority of the sound was composed of screeching, aided by the drumming beat of hundreds of leathery wings.

The help she requested had arrived. Bats swarmed the room, flying directly at the faces of her attackers and showing no mercy as their teeth made contact with skin, though Camula admitted that she did not care to watch. Invidia was screaming again, but after the first shouts of surprise from her companions, she was the only one; it appeared the others were not exactly frightened of bats, nor did they consider them a threat worth expressing vocally. The vampiress rushed to the window and raised herself up, bringing the blonde with her without surveying the chaotic scene inside the room. She did not wish to look back - the pitch of her bats' shrieks, to speak of some - had altered slightly, and it seemed more akin to outbursts of pain than those intended to ward off enemies with fear. As she got to her feet again and maneuvered the girl's body in such a way that it would be more easily carried, however, she did call off her pets - in the sense that she would not explicitly order them to stay, that was. Should they decide not to leave - desire to take revenge for their fallen comrades, which Camula could feel departing from the world of the living as she attempted to run with a clear conscience - it would not be her responsibility. In this sense she did not worry, though abandoning the thought that she had once again taken advantage of the loyalty she ought to have earned by being a benevolent friend to the creatures was a difficult task to manage.

There was little time to dwell on it, however; she quickened her pace, for the sound of bats was growing increasingly quiet behind her, and she knew that indicated the women would be after her shortly. She needed to return to the safety of her castle; only after that would she and her peers be able to properly discuss the situation in its entirety - including what they planned to do about the girl she must bring along with her - and possibly develop a solution. Thankful that the forest was a familiar location to her in this area, the vampire briefly checked to see if the girl was tolerating how quickly she was carried in her condition, but in all honesty she did not look for very long. It was difficult to regard the face, and knowing exactly how the damage had been inflicted was the main reason for that; this...was only a child - no more than fifteen. What sort of justice in the world - what sort of heavenly overseer - could allow this to happen? She shook her head of the thoughts; it was not the time to wonder...

Besides, it was naïve to assume a world whose inhabitants largely lived by some sort of morality would not allow for any sort of terrible wrongdoing. She learned that well enough when her people had been slaughtered.

And so she did not think about it; philosophic pondering should be saved for a time in which one had the luxury of relative peace and security to think - when their intellectual abilities were not better suited to address more immediate and dire concerns. After all, it was a hindrance, particularly in such grave situations, to waste one's energy on something that, no matter the length of time dedicated solely to the issue, would never yield a finite answer. Camula had come to this very conclusion herself centuries ago, though hearing the voices of her foes trailing behind her at present was rather instrumental in helping her shift her focus. They were not gaining on her, but it was hardly reassuring that they were close enough for her to hear them so clearly; she would have much preferred they'd not know the forest well enough to follow her path with any surety as to her movements.

"They must not escape - after them!"

Fortunately, she knew her haven was not far; the lake was only a little ways away. However, she was not anxious to the point of losing touch with common sense; she could not lead them so easily to her only fortress, location then exposed while she - and the other Shadow Riders inside - were completely unprepared for whatever attack the pursuers decided to launch. It did not sit well with her to carry the poor wounded girl around so far out of the way on the apparently slight chance she had in putting some more distance between the two of them and their enemies, but the woman had no other option. She sighed and whispered an apology; the girl deserved one, and she had a feeling that unless she provided it, she would not receive the proper words for a fair amount of time that could possibly span until eternity.

"I am sorry...for your pain..." Her voice was even but a portion of that surprised her; she could feel her emotions raging within her, and she would have expected the sound to crack at least once. It did not, however, and she knew that were she in a position to be more gracious, she would have been thankful. "...and for what may await you in my home; I do not know for certain." It was true; she was bringing a student to the castle of Shadow Riders. She was endangering their mission - they would certainly be exposed, or at least the likelihood of their existence becoming known was very high; it struck her as a sort of treason. Yet she did not, at this moment and felt that it would be the same at moments to come, care enough to abandon the girl; she would not leave her to die. "Please... Please...sleep. The shadows of your mind shall embrace you." She sighed again. "The shadows here...I cannot say."

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I hope you readers found this as entertaining as it was meant to be; I feel I lack proficiency in writing action-oriented scenes, though I like to include them... I swear (by my fault alone), it's much more suspenseful in my head ^^;

And as you all probably noticed, I've changed the rating back to T. I got some other opinions and settled that nothing (at least thus far) was really worth hiding the story from initial readers (who aren't accustomed to reading M), but if you ever get the feeling that the rating should be higher, let me know and I can always change it back!

I thank you all again for reading and ask for your reviews! However because I do recognize that it might be rude to ask...only leave one if you feel inclined :) I will update as soon as I am able to and I thank you once again!


	31. Chapter 31

Hello everyone! I thank you for opening up this story again; those stats saying how many hits I have (now that I've figured out how to use the technology ^^) warm my heart to the deepest core...

Also, I want to apologize here; looking at the scroll bar at right, you probably noticed how...small it is. That's because this chapter is over 14000 words. Originally I was going to do exactly what I did to 27 and 28 - slice it to ribbons to make it into two shorter chapters - and I even started to...but I just couldn't. When I was writing it, I _meant_ for it to be one chapter; I didn't want to split it up, and so finally I threw up my hands and in a rather selfish gesture declared: "It's my story and I don't want to cut it!"

That being said, I really hope you enjoy! I'm a good deal proud of this one - especially what would be the latter half of it - and I wish you could experience the intensity I meant to convey. If possible...do try to imagine it on screen!

* * *

Camula was not exactly aware of the time when she, at long last, carried the young student's body to the entrance of the castle, but she knew that it was at least an hour past what it could have been had it not taken her such effort to lose her pursuers. While she was thankful that the hour was put to good use - no doubt the likelihood of being discovered was greatly lessened - she could not say she was entirely at ease. Those who sought her head at this point, and the head of her companion, did not seem to be the types to abandon the compulsion to catch them simply because the hour was late and they had lost sight temporarily; they were not out of danger yet. Furthermore, one hour given to extra running in winding spirals through the forest was one hour lost to treating said companion whose blood loss had hopefully not risen to fatal levels.

With that in mind, the vampiress bade her castle to open the door, thankful that her influence over the mystical structure did not require her to shout for someone else to allow her entrance and possibly reveal their location, and hurried inside as the heavy wood slammed back down at her heels. It was not particularly a struggle to move herself forward, arms laden with the body of another, now that she found herself in the familiar environment of her home, but that did not imply it was the easiest of tasks making it up the rather long staircase - the first form to greet her in the hall. It was of course safer, ideally, that the castle did not allow one to near its inner sanctum, located in the upper levels, by any other means save bypassing the single door inlaid in rock, but in times such as the present it was not the most practical design. Still, she did not complain, nor did she imagine it would be a great deal farther before she would encounter someone to assist her in the reset of the journey, should her strength wane. The entrance door was quite loud - there was nothing to dull the thunderous crash as its weight struck the stone base of the castle foundation - and by the interest of ears listening carefully for her possible return, its volume would only be amplified. She did not, though, need such assistance to find herself at the top of the long staircase, and in fact it was only as she began to make out the castle foyer in the distance - at the end of the torch-lined hallway - that she saw another figure awaiting her arrival. Fortunately she did not need their efforts to finally reach them; they made no move in her direction but rather scoffed as she approached.

Camula did not pay the other individual any mind as she came in, deciding that at the moment she did not have the luxury of time to quarrel with him given the circumstances, and instead looked around the room for a...more useful source of help or information. There was none - not in sight, anyway, but her ears detected that one was coming. On second note, there appeared to be three en route to the foyer, judging only by the sets of footsteps she heard, yet as that did not make immediate sense to her, she decided it was most likely an error in judgment on her part. There could not be more than two Shadow Riders here, other than the one currently trying to get her attention with his rather biting remarks, and herself, but the mild oddity still managed to increase her hopefulness. If there were indeed at least two coming, then the one she truly sought for advice in this situation would undoubtedly be one of them...

"...and you return only after I have been berated for losing you - to add to the list of grievances against me! What's more, you've gone and..."

"That is quite enough!" she hissed, unable to take the other's accusative rant while maintaining the regality of silence and stoicism. "Nightshroud, do save your words for a less dire time...or put them to more beneficial use! Where is Amnael?"

The masked Shadow Rider glared at her. It was technically impossible to tell - the mask with which she had never seen him part completely obscured his eyes - yet there was no doubt in the woman's mind that he wished her all the ill he could muster at the time. She felt she understood; it was not as though she claimed to be particularly familiar with the lone wolf that Nightshroud was, but it did not require a great deal of exposure to his antics and often terrible moods to know that he did not take to others undermining what he would consider his authority. Interrupting what he had to say certainly fell under the heading of "disrespect and insubordination," in his mind, however alone he was in his judgment. It was difficult to say from where he exactly derived the sense of entitlement he carried about with him with his head held high above others, but Camula had admitted, to herself of course, on the few occasions that the subject arose that she never cared to give it a moment's thought. It was a waste of time; to devote any second to the other's self-absorption served no real purpose that she could imagine, for it was not as though any amount of pondering would lead to a valid conclusion.

She was secretive about her past; with the exception of the Amazoness among them, it would appear that the entirety of Shadow Riders were. This young man, however, was an entirely different story. His book was not merely closed - too simple for the likes of him. It was first written in magician's ink, invisible to all but the trained eye assisted by the purifying element of fire, and drafted in too cryptic a code for even the most dedicated of decipherers (among whom she was not) to understand and translate into more colloquial tongue. However perhaps it revealed a little more about the brunette than one would immediately suspect; being most immodest in the manner in which he enthusiastically displayed the seemingly blank book to others - turning its unmarked pages before their eyes as though challenging them to play the guessing game centered about his true essence - he perhaps did reveal a part of himself. Only the confident - she dared say egotistical - would be so bold as to put forth their black book of secrets without so much as a cover.

She wondered why it never appeared to sustain damage.

Fortunately for her interests at the present, however, Nightshroud was not insulted to the point that he refused to aid her in her search, though she could not claim his answer was particularly helpful or forthcoming.

"Not here," he snapped, irritation darkening the lilt in his voice. "Perhaps you have not cared to notice when it was not of your immediate concern, but he does not reside here. Rather..."

"I have noticed, yes; I ask only to be certain in so grave a situation as this. Forgive me; my nature is terribly responsible." Camula knew she was treading thin ice, as it were, by interrupting the other again - to assert her know-how over his at that - but she wasn't moved at present to behave otherwise. Without bothering to return her eyes to where his ought be, for the two suns boring holes into the back of her skull as she turned to look off towards the running footsteps growing louder still were enough to guess his reaction, she looked around for what may possibly provide her with a little more assistance. She was not disappointed; the form of another woman, though for one not familiar with the members of their "organization," as it were, it may very well have been a man until she was near enough to regard her face, appeared in the foyer en route to where the two quarreling individuals stood.

The woman did not allow Camula the time to address her as she approached, followed closely by the rather hulking form of a one-eyed tiger at her heels. While the sight dampened the vampiress' spirits, assuring her that Amnael was indeed not present, she could not truthfully admit to being completely disappointed. She was at least assured by the faith she had in this woman being able to do something to benefit the unconscious blonde girl's condition in the meantime - while she anxiously awaited Amnael's ruling on what the best permanent solution would be. Practicality aside, she also, though did not care to admit it, took solace in knowing that despite having broken (or, to speak in her slight favor, greatly endangered) the vow of secrecy attributed to their operation, the arriver would not hold any ill against her. She was entirely too caring for that, independent of whatever her hardened exterior may suggest. That being said, the pale woman made no attempt to hide the girl from her as she neared them.

"Camula! You had us worried for your disa...what's this?" Apparently she, for the first time, took full note of the student and softened her voice to a whisper before continuing her inquest into the subject. "A student...!" She inspected further, eyes widening as she surveyed the damage done while hardening her jaw in anticipation of an unfavorable response. "What's happened to her...?"

The vampire sighed, shaking her head quickly to rid her mind of the imagery associated with the girl's injuries before braving a reply. "There...is much to explain, Tania; however, I fear there is little time for it. Please..." She paused and looked down at the girl again. She hadn't stirred, thanks be to whatever higher power there was overlooking them, but that did not mean it was in her best interest to have her rescuers discuss the lengthy matters while still holding her in the castle entrance hall. "...we ought not begin to speak here. The girl is weak; she must rest...and something must be done about her wounds before they take a grave toll on her. She has bled far too long; I fear for her life."

Tania nodded once - the most efficient use of time given the circumstances - and took the blonde in her own arms before turning towards the stairs to the upper level of the foyer. "She may rest in my chamber; I have a few supplies there to tend to her." While she made a good four or five long strides forward without the slightest indication that she was displeased by the sound of only Camula's heels following her, she paused for a brief moment to speak again - a sharp order this time - without facing the intended listener. "Follow, Nightshroud. I may need your assistance."

The young man growled low in his throat at the command and was fully prepared to spit a decidedly distasteful choice of words back at her in his ego's defense, but a more threatening roll from the tiger at Tania's side picking him apart with its one eye kept his mouth shut momentarily and prompted him to take the first few steps in their pursuit. Of course, that did not imply he was especially satisfied; rather than make the best of the situation and the feline's fair mood, he opted to use, what each did have to admit were realistic, complaints to add a bit of music to the otherwise silent journey further up into the castle. It wasn't that he didn't exactly have a point - all his taunts that Amnael would be most displeased with the fact that the enemy, as it were, had been brought into their supposedly secret abode for rehabilitation rather than imprisonment were not only relevant but likely as well - but there could be no denying that any sort of unsupportive behavior was grossly inappropriate at the time. Regardless of the validity of it - however guided it was by the rules made clear to each of them upon agreeing to serve as Shadow Riders - the fact that the others were intent on ignoring the rules altogether at this point rendered the assertions counterintuitive at best and scornful most likely.

Unfortunately for the two women, that obvious truth did nothing to deter the young man from continuing, if not doubling, his taunting; by the time they managed to work their way to their destination by winding through the confusing but actually much more direct (as far as routes go) back halls of the castle, they could consider it an exercise of will that not once did either of them order him to be quiet again. Of course, this sort of tolerant approach to the cause of their mutually shared extreme annoyance ended abruptly once inside; Camula could not keep herself from hissing a warning on the off chance that Nightshroud might, by some reasoning of which only the divine were capable, decide to heed her words. He did not, as she admittedly anticipated, but the moment he raised his voice in retort he was silenced by a request from the woman furthest into the room, as well as the corresponding growl from said woman's inhuman companion.

"Do not wake her - for rest and for whatever secrecy you still intend to preserve!"

She set the young teen down on her own bed, not caring that the amount of blood dripping menacingly from her face would undoubtedly stain a good portion of it, and hurried about the chamber for a few moments to collect what supplies she could find. Watching her, she appeared to be uncannily prepared for this sort of emergency, though Tania herself was altogether displeased with her inability to find the exact remedies that would suit the situation. She was no stranger to the art of healing by way of the gifts of nature; the practice was instilled in those high-ranking members of her tribe, for what sort of leader would one be if she could not tend to her own supporters in their times of need? Yet confined to what she could gather on the island, and what limited provisions she had brought with her, the Amazon knew the capacity of her healing abilities was greatly reduced; what greenery humbly lay for one to find within the forests of Duel Academy could barely be associated with the verdant opulence of the rainforest - essence of nature's caregiving. What dully colored flora aspired to be curative here were not so aromatic, nor were their effects so pungent - as those which did not struggle to perform miracles in the sanctuary of the overgrown forests of her home. However, Tania did not have the luxury of altering her circumstances to better suit her needs, though she briefly indulged in the fantasy that she did; what she had would have to do.

She brought over a make-shift salve - a thick paste smelling of old tea and the musty forest floor - which she had all but frantically prepared, juggling a few pieces of cloth as well as a small bowl of water in her other hand as she prepared to get to work. It would hopefully serve what purpose she intended - she aimed to lessen the pain lest it rouse the girl from her sleep, as well as coax her not to open her eyes by the tranquilizing effects of the paste's decidedly unpleasant scent. First, though, something must be done about the wounds themselves - there would be no use in soothing them before they were properly cleaned, and so in place of actually sterilizing them (no doubt with a great deal of stinging and possibly dream-ending pain) she dampened one cloth and began to wipe the blood away. Initially, that was all Tania intended to do - she only needed to make the girl's face clean enough that any blood would not over-saturate the salve and cause it to not only stream off of her visage but also lose its healing potential, limited as it already was, entirely. However as she revealed more of the damaged skin from under the scarlet veil, now more solid as it began to congeal with the coldness of the water against it, she gasped a little and quickly realized it would not be the simple process she imagined.

"God...there's glass everywhere - gravel as well. What Hell confronted this girl...?" Her comments were simply that - musings for her ears alone. She shook her head before addressing the other Shadow Riders. "I will need your help. Nightshroud, there are tweezers on the ledge there; bring them here."

The brunette grumbled at the order but surprisingly said nothing and complied, using only the force with which he "handed" the implement to the woman to convey his dissatisfaction. When she spoke again to him, though, this relatively calm and cooperative air, despite having fought so very hard to come over him at long last, waned dramatically as he returned to his usual self.

"I must remove the debris. When I do, her wounds will re-open and they will bleed extensively if free to do so. When this happens - right after I pull the pieces out - take a cloth and press it to her face so the bleeding will stop; she had already lost much..."

Nightshroud drew back, disdain present in his tightly-clenched jaw. "This isn't my problem, so do me a favor and not take me for a nurse." He paused briefly to glare and motion in Camula's direction. "She's damned us by bringing that little girl here; have her assist you."

The vampire blinked; she, oddly enough, hadn't anticipated her services being volunteered. That was to say, she wasn't aware of having any either; her kind was not known for their ability to bleed profusely, and her knowledge as to treating such an affliction was accordingly small. She returned the young man's glare and shook her head in disbelief. "I...have no knowledge of this..."

Her humble proclamation of ignorance didn't faze the other in the slightest. He only shrugged and took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. "What does it matter? We have yet to inform Amnael of your...guest, after all. What do you imagine he would have us do?" His lips twitched into the slightest smirk. "I say let her die, and good riddance! It's not worth sacrificing our discretion for the life of a disfigured girl..."

Camula only stared at him in response for a few moments before she regained enough use of her form to draw back from the brunette in absolute disgust, yet it appeared that Tania was experiencing the greatest difficulty in keeping her wits about her for the sake of the blonde girl to whom she did not pause in tending. Her hands shook as she wiped at her face - her tone, when she found herself in control enough to speak and listen to whatever possible response may come to pass - was lower than usual and saturated in rage. Yet she did not make a single move towards the male, however her heart demanded she do so; it would not be worth the momentary relief. Instead, she used his callous words as an excuse to possibly be rid of him, for she was not particularly sure how long her iron will not to attack him could hold out.

"Say nothing of the sort... But you are correct, in any case, that we must inform Amnael of this at once. Since you are so reluctant to lend your hand here..." The muscular woman looked to the vampire, baring her fangs at Nightshroud as though it was difficult to confine herself to doing just that. "...I will teach her as needed. You will go to Amnael and bring him here. Some time to yourself as you make your way to him...will undoubtedly relieve us all."

Irritated as the man seemed to be by yet another request - order, if one factored in the mild threat woven into the woman's tone, Nightshroud was apparently most satisfied with this and actually made to abide quickly. It wasn't for the benefit of either woman, and certainly not the student, that he speedily strode towards the door with a private grin upon his lips, but his selfish motivation did nothing to appease the other two any less. Neither Tania nor her vampire companion expected the brunette to actually want to assist them, but they had correctly assumed he would relish in the opportunity to not only rid himself of the presence of others but also venture outside without repercussion. Still, they - more precisely, Tania - were not prepared to have him leave just yet; there was one element to his getup that ought be temporarily disposed of before his excursion into possibly populated territory.

"One moment, Nightshroud. Even in the shadows, the mask is rather conspicuous. Leave it here."

The other did not halt in the slightest; he only waved a hand back at her a couple of times before drawing close to the door and reaching for the handle, scoffing. "I'm careful enough."

Shoulders shaking in anger, the woman took a few moments recess in treating the blonde in order to stand abruptly and warn him again. "I'm serious; leave it." Initially ignored, she looked expectantly to her tiger and began to walk towards the door as well. "Bass."

Upon her mistress' request, the tiger snarled and leapt for her target by the exit, knocking him away and back into the room while daring him to try and bypass her. Needless to say, Nightshroud did not take to being jostled; he turned furiously to face the creature's owner and shouted at her in frustration - first unintelligible sounds and then a few choice words here and there in a brilliantly colorful array of language. Tania did not attempt to shush him at this point - it would only serve to enhance his ire - and so she focused on the more immediate issue drawing her concern. Of course, she did not understand why he was being so stubborn, or why he found it fitting to emulate his dragon monsters' outrage in response to what she would consider the simplest request of the evening, not to mention the most generous in his regard. It was not simple containing her exasperation, fueled by such disbelief in the usually self-contained individual's unnecessarily dramatic outburst, but she did try; it would not better the circumstances to appear as displeased as she felt. Upon examination, should she have wasted the time to look into it, it became obvious that her efforts were ultimately in vain, though to her credit it did not make a difference.

"No harm will come to it...!" she snapped, attempting to keep her voice level although failing rather miserably. "Nightshroud, please don't be so difficult and hurry along. Take it off. You'll have it back soon enough."

In truth, the severity of his reaction was as bizarre to the brunette as it was the two women onlookers, but he did not care to share his uncertainty with them to any extent and growled defensively. He could not provide himself with any logical explanation as to why taking the mask off should be as difficult for him as it was, but at the same time he could also not command his hands to remove it - they stayed immobile by his sides no matter how his conscious mind instructed them. It was as though...something undermined his authority over his own body, and imagining that only increased his anger, however undirected the rage was. He was satisfied with lashing out against a surrogate, especially the particular surrogate who approached him while reaching to actually remove the mask as though he was prepared to stand there and allow it.

He wouldn't dream of it.

"Back off!" he screeched at her, slapping her hand away and stoking the fire in his glare. He didn't think of reacting - didn't think of actually causing the woman to falter back a little at the force of the hit; he only _did_, and it was most mysterious. Tania, reclaiming her sturdy stance and silently signaling for Bass not to retaliate against the man, was not absorbed in such pondering as to why, however; she only thought further to allow herself to realize that attempting to have Nightshroud part ways with the mask, odd an addiction as it was, was entirely futile. Instead, she took another minute in silence to weight her options before sighing and shaking her head at him, again when he shouted back at her. "Keep your hands off! You _will not _touch it!"

"It's only..."

Nightshroud, it seemed, was not prepared to listen further. His voice had deepened to a guttural roar and taken on a new air of malice altogether. It was illogical to her, but Tania wondered if he was the same petty individual she'd previously taken him to be. "You will not! My power is _mine_; you will not take it!" She made to comment in confusion as to what he meant but stopped; he wouldn't hear her, not shaking as violently as he was. It seemed that the further he thought of her thwarted endeavor to put distance between his body and the garish decoration adorning it the more passionately his fury raged within him. It was no use reasoning with, or questioning, the firestorms of Hell. "Get back...!"

Unable to further withstand the insanity, Camula shook off the paralysis which had set in at the beginning of the brunette's tirade and hurried over to the pair of Shadow Riders, eyes glowing. She felt something - some power emanating from the black-clothed individual's body that she had not noticed earlier, and she was quite sure that whatever it was there wasn't the time to fully address it. It was strange; she wanted to explore - wanted to be sure that her unawareness of it earlier had not been merely a lapse in her perceptive skill and instead a result of whatever force possessed the man now having been absent. Yet that sort of foray into the unknown ought be saved for a more stable time devoid of any other more pressing issues, and such a time the present was not. She, with that in mind, forced herself between the two opposing figures of Tania and the slowly calming Nightshroud while offering the only solution she could put forth.

"Enough! I will go!" She ignored the sympathetic glance she received from the Amazoness, knowing it was directly related to the trouble through which she had already ventured that night and the day before, in favor of continuing to plead her case. "I will change my form; should I encounter anyone, they will have no reason to wonder why there is a bat about at this hour. I will return as quickly as I can manage..."

Tania considered the offer for a moment before sighing again and returning to the thankfully still unconscious girl's side, wiping her cheek with the wet cloth and reaching for the tweezers Nightshroud had so generously dropped earlier. "Very well; be careful." She paused, as though preparing herself for the worst possible reaction to what words she intended to speak next. "Nightshroud... The cloth, please - she mustn't bleed any more..."

This time, the brunette did not resist. While the expression he wore was not content in the slightest, it was not particularly angry either and in total rather stoic. He was no longer upset, it seemed, and while the ability of such fury to dissipate in a mere instant struck Tania as more than a little odd, she was not going to test the boundaries by questioning it. She was thankful his hateful aura had gone for the time being; it made him far more trustworthy, especially now that he had wordlessly agreed to actually assist her in treating the student they had with them whether it would displease Amnael or not. She said nothing more as they began to work, nor did she look to see Camula exit by way of the window by the doorway; her attention was fully devoted to the small shards of rock and glass she carefully pulled from the young girl's face...and the brevity with which Nightshroud moved the rag to press against the open wounds.

The vampire, though, did not concern herself with wondering - at least, for the most part - how the two remaining Shadow Riders in the room would get along or work together in her absence; she was much too occupied with the feeling of relief said absence brought her. She did not feel particularly tired - it was rare for one of her race to feel such while imbued with the energy graciously provided by the moon overhead - but that was only to speak of her physical condition. Mentally she found herself longing for sleep - the sort of deep trance that one well versed in the art of meditation could achieve - though dwelling on the subject she was not certain if even that could entirely ease her weary mind. Resting would not be enough; she must rest but she must be sure not to dream - any fantasy at all would be transformed into the imagery which currently ailed her most. She may be able to picture, for just a moment, herself among her kin - free in the solitude of the long-abandoned mountain settlement they had built over hundreds of years - but the fair tranquility would all too soon distort into the fires of the crusades against those she missed so desperately or, even worse at present, perhaps the cold smirk of the woman from whom she had rescued the blonde girl that night. She did not desire to remember these faces - this evil, yet its potency was so great that she doubted there would be any avoiding it if she was not in constant command of each thought in her head, and thus it was impossible to dream and simultaneously rest assured. She was not confident in her ability to accomplish either.

That being said, she did not dally in the enticing delusion but set her mind on the practical elements of flight, guiding her wings to take her, by the shortest possible route, to the red-roofed dormitory in which Amnael would hopefully await her. She had no plan for what she would do if he was not present - never had she (and likely Tania as well) considered the small possibility of the man having left his abode for some personal matter, though it would not be exactly strange to her if she did find his room empty. He experienced difficulty remaining in one place for very long or leaving his expansive mind in the state of learning in which it was; constantly he strove to broaden his own horizons beyond the natural realm, and while it was for precisely that reason that he was invaluable as a companion it was for the same that she began to worry a little as her destination entered her line of sight. She had agreed to locate him and bring him back...but if he was not there to receive her, where would she look? Would it be too late, upon her return assuming she did locate him, to act in the best manner after leaving the student alone and still in a state of relatively serious injury for perhaps hours more? She couldn't be sure, but she tried not to think about it.

She would cross that bridge when she came to it, as she did so many others.

Upon arrival, however, she breathed a sigh of relief - planned to after resuming humanoid form again, that is - as she discovered that her worry was, in terms of the reality, baseless. Amnael...or however he addressed himself to his students in his current black-haired form, was indeed in his proper place - at the desk in his room, scribbling in a notebook while carefully looking through a tome. He heard her shift to her true form, silent as she was; she didn't bother to wonder how. Without knocking, for she would not risk discovery in the event that not all students in the dormitory had yet fallen asleep (as she imagined Amnael would advise her), she entered the room quickly and quietly before thinking over exactly what she ought have planned to say.

The man waited for her for a few moments, not turning his head to face her or otherwise indicating that he knew she had come in, but when she said nothing for fear of it somehow being the wrong thing, he broke the silence.

"It is risky for you to come here - that you know. I expect there is an emergency." His voice was calm and rather light considering the words he spoke; it caught her a little off guard. It did, however, help answer the question of why his students never appeared to suspect he was involved in anything underhand; to one unaware of his affiliations, he was entirely unassuming as this person - this professor. "Well?"

She hung her head a little but decided to pick it back up before taking another step forward. It was pointless to feel guilty; she would have done the same thing over and over again no matter how many times she was presented with the options for what she faced that night. She felt no shame. Still, perhaps an apology for the sake of formality and respect alone was in order...

"I apologize, Amnael; the intrusion is necessary. We do have an emergency and your presence is needed at the castle immediately." Camula took a second to work out the phrasing of her next sentence, hoping somehow the man would be able to handle it with the same serenity he did her previous words. "A student is badly injured...and we are treating her to the best of our ability."

For the first time that evening, the man turned to her; that update certainly caught his attention. He stood hurriedly from his chair and strode over to the open closet at the other end of the room, sifting through the clothes until he happened upon the garment he desired - his cloak. He was going to be coming with her, she assumed; Amnael was not one to chance being seen by anyone who may possibly recognize him as a member of Duel Academy, even if there would perhaps be little need for any further caution if the girl did awake in their presence. No words passed between them for a time - she had nothing further to say and it appeared that the man was taking the time to think of something as he drew his cloak around his head and secured the opaque veil over the lower half of his face. She did not wish to interrupt.

"I will be informed at a more appropriate time; the present is volatile. We leave now."

Camula did not take the time to nod; unnecessary as that would be, since Amnael would undoubtedly either follow her or find his own way to the castle for the purpose of attaining some sort of solitude, she exited the room and regained her bat form upon doing so. She supposed she could make the journey as her vampire self - she could only travel as quickly as her companion could manage, after all - but it leaving the impracticality of hurrying through the forest in heels and a long dress aside, it would be less suspicious to any onlooker to notice their professor scurrying about in the dark (not that they wouldn't be a little puzzled by it) alone than it would if he was accompanied by an unidentifiable female form. Looking only into the darkness, one would not imagine happening upon students at present, but the vampire knew better; she could tell by the air that it was not quite as late in the evening as it would otherwise appear, and so the likelihood of others walking around (while attempting to remain clandestine themselves) was not great, no, but at the same time not strikingly low.

It seemed, however, that fortune remained supportive of their efforts for the journey, and after not encountering another soul save the small animals they passed in the forest, the reality of the odds being barely tipped in their favor felt strangely exaggerative. That did not mean they would waste any time celebrating; Amnael uttered no words as he hurriedly strode inside the palace, noting that he was followed by a person rather than a bat but not paying the individual any mind. He was driven, Camula noticed; as he drew closer to Tania's room where the blonde girl was hopefully resting - apparently, the man's connection to the occult was enough to inform him of her location without the vampire supplying the information - his pace grew quicker. He was becoming more frantic - less sure of how he was "planning" to manage the situation - and if she were not watching the transformation herself, the woman would not have believed it was possible. It was not in Amnael's character, to the extent of her knowledge and experience with him, to be uncertain; should he be, she imagined, it was not his way to reveal that for others to notice. However she supposed that she ought not look to his past behavior and actually expect his current actions to entirely reflect it; what she could recall were his responses to normal circumstances.

These were anything but.

The two Shadow Riders within the room looked up quickly as Amnael arrived - not surprised, per se, but somehow not anticipating either the relatively short amount of time it had taken Camula to find and return with him or the brusque enthusiasm with which the older man all but threw the door aside and strode forward to survey the scene. Tania remained by the blonde's side as he approached, still working at the remedy she'd prepared earlier. She could admit to herself that she had made a good amount of progress - most of the glass and at least half of the gravel was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed rather than adorning the young girl's face, and she had managed to control the bleeding enough to begin rubbing the herbal paste onto the injuries - but she did not consider herself finished and so did not leave her ears open to any possible instruction to halt. Nightshroud, on the other hand, took Amnael's entry as an excuse to take a few paces back away from the bed and cross his arms again, waiting for what their unofficial leader had to say. He wasn't exactly hopeful; he could recall all too well the anger the man had displayed when he incorrectly assumed he'd been glimpsed by a student, and so the brunette was fairly certain that bringing a student into their home, as it were, would not go over well. He imagined the only buffer against an onslaught of shouts and accusations would be the common interest in the girl remaining asleep.

To his surprise, Amnael had nothing negative to say when he, after studying the student's face for a decent amount of time, did at last speak; in fact, he wouldn't say the man was even speaking to anyone in the room - only to himself.

"My God... Alexis Rhodes...I barely recognize..." He looked up sharply, first to Tania and, after receiving no indication that she knew what happened to the girl, later to Camula. He knew enough to figure Nightshroud would not be one to assist her had he found her in her wounded state. "You found her, I assume."

The vampire shook her head. "Not...exactly. I... As you know, I was absent for a day - trapped in an abandoned building in this forest. There were people there - five strange women and a young girl as well; they appear to have kidnaped this girl." She paused. "Their leader...was attempting a ritual using her body - to steal it, I believe. It was unsuccessful. She had no further use for her...and so she did _this_. I...realize it was dangerous to bring her here, but those monstrous people would have killed her. She is only a child; I will not have it."

Had circumstance been more permitting of warmth, Tania would have smiled - even if only to herself - as she listened to Camula's words. She was not concerned with what Nightshroud, quiet as he had become as of late, or even Amnael had to say; she was completely assured that the woman had not only done the "right thing" - if she, loosely aligned with the shadows as she was, was capable of determining such - but believed it as well. Too often she felt basic principles slipped away from those in her company in favor of pursuing grander interests, namely she had wondered, on occasion, to what extent Camula would be willing to travel in order to accomplish her goal. She never held any doubt that the woman's heart, albeit quite still, was in the proper place between her body and her soul, but she was not so certain if it was powerful enough to restrict her actions and bind her restorative conquests to a moral path. Now, though, she was less unclear about the matter; the girl's...no, Alexis' soul was there for the taking, already abandoned by other forces of darkness, and the vampire refused to accept it. Her mission to revive her people was not blinded by revenge; she still knew full well who her enemies were.

...and hopefully Amnael could also see, as it appeared he did, that at the moment, Alexis Rhodes was not one of them.

The alchemist looked back to the blonde and began to speak, yet the information he intended to relay went altogether unnoticed by a loud crash coming from the base of the castle. He hastily looked about the room, finally settling his eyes on the door as he, and those in his presence, began to hear the dullest trace of footsteps on the ground floor and rapidly approaching them. Nightshroud ran to the window to get a glimpse of the main entrance, straining his eyes from behind his mask initially in an attempt to better see what exactly the cause of the noise was but eventually abandoning it in favor of listening through the shadows. His words, though, did not require him to do either.

"It seems we have company...!"

Camula cussed in her native tongue, hurriedly locking the door to the chamber and determining if there was something movable within the room with which she could brace it. "I sense their presence...! Their leader vowed we would not escape - they have come to eliminate us!"

Tania, finally breaking from tending to the student's wounds, stood and called Bass to her, preparing for the confrontation that seemed entirely unavoidable. "Five women and a young girl... We can handle that!"

"They are not human; I felt their power!" the vampiress replied in a frantic whisper. "I have quarreled with one before - she does not feel pain as we do! I do not know the extent of their might, but we must be cautious!" Looking for some sort of reassurance, she turned to Amnael. "You are an alchemist - the air of the occult gives you life. Can you not stop them...?"

For a moment, there was no answer; it appeared the man did not have a suitable one to present, but rather than completely discount him or the expanses of his trained mind, the woman waited a few more moments further to be sure. By then he did manage to speak, yet it did not seem that her wait was entirely well-worth the worry she felt in the process; he presented somewhat of a solution but without any traces of the surety she had been eagerly awaiting. He shook his head a few times quickly first before deciding on a rather sudden course of action; without word or other warning, he lifted the blonde from the bed and brought her to the far end of the room, furthest from the door (and probable entry point of their enemies) before looking back to the other three Shadow Riders with worry clouding his eyes. It was disheartening, to say the least; the three were comfortable enough not knowing exactly what sort of foe they combatted so long as some higher authority willing to advise them was aware, but now that the anticipated help appeared almost as puzzled there was no longer the relative certainty of victory. At least, unless Amnael managed to figure it out after the battle began.

"I...may know," he said with a trace of timidity sending tremors through his tone. "...but until they arrive I cannot say anything definitively. I will only say this; I have an idea that will save us, but it requires time - the incantation is long. I will shroud both myself and this girl in a circle of protection so that I may complete the spell, but you must understand that if they are as powerful as my body senses, it will be only an array of paper. It...is much to ask, I know..." His eyes flashed. "...but you must hold them back! It is our only hope to be rid of them!" Taking a moment to steady himself, he glanced towards Nightshroud, who had pulled his form away from the window and readied himself for an attack. "Powerful as your spirit is, Nightshroud, this body you have taken will not allow you to exert yourself! You must..."

"I will not hide - a coward!" he snapped, fists clenching. "You will not order me to entrust my safekeeping to your phantom shield; I am better protected alone!"

The man blinked, not anticipating what he deemed to be an illogical response, and once more attempted to convince him. "The light within that body dispels the shadows from which you draw your strength, Nightshroud; you cannot call upon the power of darkness! In this form you are no more than human!"

Nightshroud did at first seem to consider this, for he knew - as Amnael was well aware - that the alchemist intended to speak the truth...and would have, on any other occasion. Yet there was something about the way his blood seemed to flow through his veins at this time, feeling his opponents draw closer, that gave him enough reason to doubt the necessity of the warning - the need for extreme caution. He had never been able to fully exercise his might in this teenage form; he had long since come to accept that, though he did not understand the specifics as to why, he must make peace with it since it did grant him the strength of a tangible presence. However awaiting the impending battle he did not feel as bound by the limitations of humanity as he generally did; he could feel the truest essence of darkness winding itself around him - gently proclaiming its support. He did not understand - he did not care to - but at this moment...he was sure; he was not human now.

"I can feel it, Amnael - I feel my power radiating in my body. I will not cower in the face of these mysterious entities; I will face them."

However foolish it may be to rely on the confidence in Nightshroud's voice being a flawless indicator of his capabilities, something about it at that moment seemed genuine enough that Amnael did not attempt to argue further. Of course, in the event that he had prepared to push his case a little more, he would have been unable to speak without informing their "guests" of the conversation. At that moment, the door broke open, burst aside in a glittering array of metal-tipped wooden confetti in the moonlight, to make way for the first of five newcomers to enter. While neither of the female Shadow Riders, nor Nightshroud, responded with any sort of surprise unrelated to the mild shock associated with the door giving way so quickly, Amnael caught himself near gaping in awe when the dust cleared. He did not believe his eyes; he would have rubbed the illusion away if his logical brain was not good enough to previously advise him of how ineffective the attempt would be. Yet he forced himself to look away and begin the incantation, muttering ancient words while trying not to imagine the opponent his companions currently faced.

He could not bear to, once again, realize it was the visage of Zane Truesdale looking back at him.

The familiar teen grinned, counting the number of foes in the room and looking towards Camula for her vocal address. "Come now - don't be surprised! You could not have possibly imagined we wouldn't discover this...rather grand abode." The voice stopped for a moment then. It began once more with a light chuckle and a shake of the head, but no longer addressed the vampire; instead, the intended listeners were those five other females in its support. "I will say, I would have been most satisfied with eliminating only the two from the moment we crossed paths...yet it seems things have grown a bit more complicated." She laughed again and raised her hands, palms up, in a gesture of commencement. "Kill them all, then!"

It wasn't easy to remain focused on the person who anyone could determine was the leader of the Shadow Riders' opposition at this point, but that was not to imply Nightshroud did not try to the fullest extent of his ability. It seemed that the room exploded with violent activity the moment the cerulean-haired teen declared the conflict ought begin; in what could be no more than a few seconds, the mass of young women dispersed to set their sights on Camula and Tania, both of whom - Nightshroud must admit - were aptly prepared for the onslaught yet still not quite equipped to handle the force behind each attack. The brunette meant to involve himself - he did - however it was difficult; no attention seemed to be paid to him, and while it did anger him to figure it was because they did not regard him as a foreseeable threat, the generous allotment of extra time he had to calculate his future movements was something he of which he could not help but take advantage. Separated from the immediate action, he had the opportunity to study his enemies individually - choose which one would be best for him to engage.

The small, red-haired girl battling fiercely with Bass...seemed to be held in check well enough, and by an animal no less; there was no point in wasting energy on her. The same went for a dark-haired woman with apparently none but the slightest interest in the battle, sheltering herself by the wall and hiding her head a little, particularly when she feared her leader would take notice. When she was noticed she did move, but it was only out of fear; something would become of her if she did not abide by the other's wishes, though there was no telling as to what. However he did take her timidity to heart; while on the surface it would appear that the inquest into her only proved she was not a threat to him, it revealed far more about the young leader; there was a power in the fragile form that Nightshroud reminded himself to not underestimate, unexpected as such power may be. Setting the caution aside temporarily, though, he narrowed his eyes and glared hotly at one target in particular - unsurprisingly, the tall woman coming towards him.

Perhaps he should not be so confident, seeing as he had never managed to put his power to any practical use before outside the realm of individual duels, but for some reason he felt entitled to be. The sort of malice which wove together to craft the black fabric of true night - that essence which fueled his might - hung in the room like a heavy cloud of black smoke, exhaled by the foes he prepared to face. He could feel their sins strengthening him - their hate and gleeful rage igniting the violent flame within his heart, and with a shout he withdrew one card from the cursed deck at his hip and held it, arm outstretched, towards the sky.

"You can raise no atrocity against me!" His voice was low - a sinister growl that even went so far as to strike him as refreshingly unfamiliar. "I embody your rage; I _am _your depravity! I am darkness!" The card in his hand began to glow; it gathered power to it with every shadowy breath its owner drew and returned, its force doubled, to the atmosphere with each exhalation. "Come forth - Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"

The shadows in the room began to swirl - lightly at first and undetectable to one who did not either search for or anticipate it, but with a ferocity that grew stronger as the spiral grew into a vicious storm; the eye of the twister centered around the card in Nightshroud's hand, the wind blew dust and particles of heinous shadow about the room. The woman approaching the brunette, as well as those in the room who had taken a moment's pause in battling to take an interest in the happening, shielded their faces with their arms yet did so while leaving their vision as intact as possible; they would not fail to witness this. A roar shook the chamber, sending bits of stone from the ceiling high overhead to the floor, as two black wings emerged from the storm and a pair of heated red eyes glowed malevolently between them. The wings started beating then, air currents lashing the tall woman's face and driving her back a few paces, although unable to remove her completely from the immediate area. Nightshroud, however, was not worried; with a delighted smirk upon his face and what power burned like the Red-Eyes' flame within his blood, he called up to the sleek outline hovering dangerously low overhead.

"Dark Mega Flare!"

With a great cry, the massive cloud of haze disappeared into thousands of fragments of tainted matter as the now fully visible dragon released a fierce stream of flame at the woman. She moved in the nick of time to save herself yet not quite quickly enough to avoid the flame completely; caught off-center in the inferno she was thrown backwards across the room and halted only by the castle wall at her back, the rock left dented in her wake. She did move again with a vicious glare yet slowly; it did not appear she was quite so immune to the experience of pain as Camula had warned her associate was...though Nightshroud would like to believe his dragon caused more in the way of damage than the vampire. The dark-haired woman who had been cowering against the wall as often as she could took a few shaky steps towards her injured companion though made no motion to actually assist her; it appeared her interest was largely self-serving.

"Such power...Superbia, you survive..."

"That...bastard..." the woman ground out, steadying herself as she poised for what seemed to be another attack. "...will not trump me!"

He raised an eyebrow. "We'll see about that - Red-Eyes!"

The creature knocked her back again, flames singeing the ends of her hair, yet again she stood to her full height and prepared to come at him. He listened carefully, hearing Amnael still chanting in the background; he couldn't tell if the man was anywhere near being done, but then again he could stand to keep this up so long as this woman's uncanny stamina didn't hold out past his dragon's ability to attack. Yet as he did listen, another sound - that of a scuffle not too far away - caught his attention and prompted his turning away from Superbia and in its direction. It was Camula, clawing at her opponent who, like his own foe, continued to tear at her despite the obvious damage that had already been done to her person. He gave Camula credit - she was doing well for herself in holding the frightfully thin woman back with not but her fangs and nails to assist her - but even he could tell her strength was beginning to wane. Her movements were not so quick as they had been initially, and there was a gash - not bleeding yet still deep - from her collarbone to wear the top of her dress had been torn a little at left. She would continue fighting, he did not doubt, but he could not be sure she would hold out much longer.

That being said, he stepped back a few paces and commanded the dragon again, this time directing its ire at the green-eyed woman the vampire faced.

"Red-Eyes - attack the spidery one with Inferno Fire Blast!"

At first it appeared the dragon was reluctant to leave its master, however it accepted his authority over its inclination to hesitate and did as he bade, casting a massive, fiery tempest of a blast at the target. The woman shrieked as it connected with her, the skin of her arms used in her defense peeling a little and saturating the room in the foul odor of burnt flesh, yet the moment she managed to pick her tattered form up from the floor she was after Camula again. The dragon did not let up; it lashed her with its tail before her claws made contact with the vampire's skin - twice more before the woman at last showed some sign of difficulty regaining stability before her next attack. Nightshroud looked on in amazement; he could tell the woman was not human - not so different a being as he, actually, considering the level of malice within her - yet he did not imagine that even he in his prime could withstand the abuse she suffered and still force himself to fight so fiercely. He longed to know where that unyielding might came from - how he may incorporate something similar into his own body - and what the extent of it was, yet for that he suspected he would have to look for their leader's potential. It was curious, though; scanning the room for the form, he could not see the figure among the others. That frustrated him, for there were a great deal of things he could not decipher about the woman - notable among them, why his soul assured him it was proper to deem her female when her body was not - but more to the point, he did not enjoy the feeling of being remotely unaware of anything during so dire a situation. If he could not see her...he was no safer than a sitting duck; his nature warned him against the state of ignorance.

As though his pondering was meant to warn him of the inevitable future which was to come, Nightshroud found himself forced onto his back on the ground by a hand closed tightly around his throat and a light weight on top of his body; it seemed the leader he had been so interested in locating took it upon herself to come to him. He clawed at her, unable to gather the air in his lungs needed to call for Red-Eyes, yet it was no use; her hold was, in spite of her small frame, bound to him like welded iron, and the mirthful laughter in her eyes was enough to inform him that she had no immediate plans to release him. His primary fear, though, was not strangulation; there was a much more pressing issue at hand. For the closer her face drew to his, the heavier her power wrapped around him and the more unfamiliar his own force felt to him. It was slipping away - she was draining his energy. Eyes flashing with fury, he kicked one knee upwards into her abdomen yet only managed to elicit a small grunt of discomfort from her. Her taunting smirk, accompanied by an accordingly mocking tone, returned before he had enough time to delight in the miniscule victory.

"My...what power you wield...! Come now, darling; do not let it burden your heart... I will gladly take it from you..." She snickered. "...and your spirit as well..."

She drew closer to his face and he spat at her - actually, attempted to since the hand on his throat largely restricted his ability to do so. It did nothing to cause her to withdraw, however, neither did his numerous attempts to literally throw her off of him, however simple a task it would seem to be. The teen lowered what appeared to be someone else's lips towards his - decidedly her preferred method of actually separating her victim from their soul, yet Nightshroud would not sit idly by and give it to her; the moment she was close enough, he suddenly moved his head forward to bite her. He was successful - he could taste the coppery tang of blood in his mouth and she did pause for a moment - but it was short-lived. With a glare that he would have expected to be much more angry than it actually was, she tangled her free hand in his hair to pull his head back far enough to render it immobile and ordered him to be still.

He attempted to curse at her in response but couldn't manage a squeak; his vocal chords were too tightly constricted and he was growing light-headed. In the distance he felt he heard Camula and Tania calling out to him but the amount of focus he was able to give to the sounds of their voices wasn't enough to keep him entirely awake, and the shoves he did managed to put forth against the teen were more for show than attaining actual results. Losing oxygen still, he could barely recall where he was...yet in a moment, the air chilled and he felt the hand loosen.

"...szèrèv vixruka!"

With that final line, Amnael at long last concluded his seemingly endless incantations; his hex - what he called their permanent solution - was complete.

Nightshroud witnessed the spell take hold immediately; the pale teen shrieked in apparent agony and all but flew off of him, clutching at her hair and barely remaining upright on trembling legs. Her supporters were in largely the same state, though a few of them could not bear to stand without the assistance of the castle wall, and so at last withdrew from their battles in order to howl in pain amongst themselves. Their eyes glowed, as did their bodies, and as though the glow embodied the spiritual energy terrorizing them they clawed at their own skin to no avail, for no amount of blood would reduce the effects of Amnael's curse. The three Shadow Riders previously engaged in battle looked on in wonder, then smiled at the success of their leader's magic, yet when Nightshroud glanced back towards said leader he felt his grin fall back into a grimace of puzzlement. Amnael was not relieved - he was worried - and the brunette became accordingly troubled as he looked back to the screeching party again. They were still in pain but did not appear to be otherwise afflicted - their forms remained grounded on the floor, and there were two card-sized forms taking shape beside each of them.

Amnael's eyes were enough to assure the masked Shadow Rider of the disturbing truth; something was wrong with the spell.

The cards hovering about the afflicted group disappeared soon after realizing their true form and their apparent new owners collapsed against the ground, with the exception of the leader. She shook where she stood - more of a bad case of trembling, actually - yet forced her weary head to look up. However it was not Nightshroud, her immediate foe, that she chose to regard; instead, her cerulean gaze...no, the cerulean gaze of the proper owner of her body was transfixed on Amnael. There was no questioning in those eyes - no wonder as to what face the veil he wore may conceal; the man whose true essence lay beneath his cloaked exterior was as recognizable as he would be in any other attire and lit by the illuminating clarity of the sun.

"Professor...Banner...?" a weak voice gasped out, the shaking growing more noticeable. The name confused the other Shadow Riders a little but they did not comment; whatever this teen had to say was worth hearing. "I...Alexis...I'm sorry... I...I'm so sorry!" He squealed a little as a particularly violent shake racked his body and tears welled in his eyes, yet he managed to intake enough air via heavy panting to continue. "P-Professor...I c-can't...control...i-it! Help me, Banner...! I...!"

Another voice called out - the golden-eyed member of the enemy party. "Luxuria!"

The name reawakened something within the teen - whatever entity had overtaken him; he shrieked again and faltered back a few steps on the stone floor, tearing at his hair until the movements became a sort of wild thrashing. However when the outburst was over, there was no denying the absence of light in the room as whatever student who had managed to overtake this "Luxuria," as Nightshroud observed, was gone and that the very evil which had taken up residence within the security of his shell had returned. Her eyes, when they reopened, were enough assurance of that; they were frigid - caverns to abysmal mana - and above all enraged. Yet Nightshroud did not allow her, or her associates, the opportunity to possibly begin another attack; based on the success (or lack thereof) of Amnael's last attempt to permanently defeat them, the Shadow Riders could not risk another battle as malignant as the first.

"Red-Eyes, get rid of them!"

The black dragon did not take a moment before acquiescing to Nightshroud's oder; it released a breath of flame down upon its enemies and caused them to back towards the entrance to the room. With a cry of triumph, Red-Eyes struck again, this time fully driving the mass outside and, what the rumbling and crashing in the lower halls would suggest to those still in the room, down further into the castle until it managed to force them out of the structure entirely. Luxuria was gone along with her peers - she fled once her possession of the teen had taken enough of a hold for her to run without fear that her will would be surmounted by one more befitting to her chosen body - and with the chamber clear of enemies there was finally enough clean air to allow for a few deep breaths followed by rather cleansing sighs. Tania was praising her loyal pet for the support it had given her, though it would appear that the feline would have been just as inclined to battle without her immediate request than with it - but stopped in order to walk back towards where Amnael still knelt beside Alexis. Camula was making her way over as well, undoubtedly sensing the tension that only the cloaked Shadow Rider could possibly emit at what she would deem a time of victory such as this; her gait was unhampered, despite the injuries she had sustained, and were already beginning to heal despite the lack of time to do so.

Nightshroud did not move; his mind instructed him it would be best to - to go and see just what bothered Amnael to the point that he remained silent - but for a reason he could not bring himself to ponder, his feet refused to comply. He felt a mild twitching in his nerves, growing slowly more intense, yet unable as he was to vocally express his confusion he was entirely unnoticed by the others behind him in the room. Their words reached him even though it was not for his ears per se that they spoke; he would have liked to comment if he could only move...

"...we have won the battle, yes, but the war is not yet decided..." It was Amnael's voice - clearer than it had been earlier that evening. He had removed the veil covering his mouth temporarily, decidedly confident in the blonde student's ability to remain unconscious. It was a logical conclusion; she had ceased to stir at all during the clamorous confrontation - it did not follow that speaking soft words would rouse her. "The spell... I am disappointed; my magic does not often fail me..."

"It did something," Tania interjected with a mildly puzzled tone. "When they pulled themselves together...they were not as powerful as they were upon coming here; you weakened them. You must have, else I doubt they would have made such haste in fleeing..."

Camula nodded, raising a hand to lightly trace the details of her charmed necklace while considering her own response. "I agree...though I believe I understand what you imply, Amnael; I detected less strength in their physical forms after your incantations were complete, yet for the short time they remained here afterwards, the air of this room was still shrouded in dusk. They were not weakened, I feel, so much as their power was...divided." She paused. "Is that correct?"

With a heavy sigh, Amnael took the time needed to pick Alexis' body off the floor and set it on the bed again before replying. "Yes; you speak the truth." He pondered what he might say next - he owed them an explanation...yet somehow he could not be entirely certain himself. It was plain for him to see what had happened, but without any sort of empirical data on the subject, he was left with no other option but to speculate as to why. "Those people, I can now say with utmost certainty, are what we may entitle the embodiment of sin - physical forms granted to the deadliest of vices by which man may be afflicted. As literal incarnations, they are but sparsely mentioned in only the oldest writings of alchemic study; until this night, I was not convinced of their existence."

The vampire looked off towards the window at the night sky, imagining the shelter its darkness unfortunately offered their foe. "I see; we are not unfamiliar with vice...though I was instructed that there were seven. This enemy appears to be six."

Amnael shook his head a little. "There _should be _seven. However I must admit that I have a rather credible idea as to where the last has gone; I will share." Despite proclaiming his eagerness to spread the information among his peers, the man took a few moments and two sighs more to abide by his own offering. "In their ultimate form, no sin is greater than another; I was not expecting them to display such...allegiance to one. Yet the power that flows through their leader is in greater concentration than that of the others; I surmise she has done away with the seventh in order to absorb her energy, and that fear of falling victim to the same fate binds the remaining five to Luxuria." Another pause. "That would also explain...what she has done to the host of her body and," he said, waving a hand toward Alexis, "what she attempted to do with this girl."

Tania crossed her arms. "Overtake them, you mean? To steal their energy and use it for her own means - I understand. But their bodies...why take them? To be personified, she must have her own."

"Not necessarily," the alchemist replied. He continued quickly, ignoring the looks of confusion he received from the two women. "I do not doubt that whoever granted the vices human form initially did grant Luxuria a body, as he or she did the others. However...it appears that she is no longer in possession of it." There was no book detailing his theory - Amnael relied on his assumptions alone - but as he strongly believed his reasoning was most logical, he felt justified in not mentioning the lack of support. "Luxuria is the incarnation of lust - for the bodies of others as one is generally educated to know, and for the _power_ others hold; that is why I am sure she could not help but sacrifice one of her own to absorb her energy. The body, however, can only take so much before it loses its ability to channel what life energy one requires - mortal _or_ divine - to maintain their existence. Because Luxuria, especially as she appears now, possesses more waking power than her human body can tolerate, she must take the form of another as her replacement when the time comes. If she did not, her body would die, and she would lose what physical presence she possesses."

With a twitch of her ears, the vampire hurriedly spoke up, sensing an opportunity. "If she relies on her human form to exert her energy, then we can defeat her by stripping her of it!"

Brilliant as the concept was, it received only a sigh as an initial response. "I so hoped to do the very thing, yet I seem to have underestimated their strength...or overestimated mine. I meant to remove their spirits - the raw power keeping them alive - and seal them in cards, not unlike the three Sacred Beast cards we ourselves seek. However, I was largely unsuccessful." It was difficult for Amnael to admit his defeat - his shortcomings. Perhaps he was too accustomed to not being able to imagine them...or, what was simpler; he may very well have succumbed to pride with his growing age. "From what I witnessed, the cards only managed to contain a portion of their energy rather than the entirety I had intended - what worsens the matter is that it appears they have taken such cards with them. They will not be able to destroy them to somehow reconstitute themselves - I am confident of that - but we must reclaim the cards in order to complete the spell. If I am able to cast my magic over them while they are united with the proper cards, I believe I can seal the remainder of their spirits away."

"Let's drag them back - one at a time!" the Amazon declared with a rather thunderous clap of a fist against her palm. Bass growled in approval as well, sitting forward on her haunches in preparation for a run. "We can manage that; we will end this before they gather themselves for another assault!"

Amnael disliked being the bearer of ill news, but he had no choice; he could not allow for any rash action, however well-meaning. It would not lead to positive results in this instance, and may very well worsen their own stability. "There is a stipulation." Without taking the necessary time to so much as fully listen to it, Tania's fiery heart sank a little. "I was unable to accomplish the same thing tonight; it is illogical for me to assume I would be able to in similar circumstances. In order to work, each one must be rendered vulnerable to my influence - they cannot possess the energy to easily resist, else their will is given to win out over mine. To achieve such a dramatic weakness in their stamina..." His eyes flashed. "...they must be defeated in a duel - a duel with the life energy of the combatants on the line!"

It took a few moments for the words to fully set in - Amnael could tell by the delayed reaction he received from the two female listeners...and the complete lack of response Nightshroud put forth. His mind clear to wonder about it, however, he found himself puzzled as to why the brunette had grown eerily quiet recently and turned his gaze to study him. He hadn't moved at all - not even to look at them - yet his body seemed to sway in the breezeless atmosphere; it was not possible to be any less steady on one's feet than he was. The man began to head towards him - inquire what exactly the matter was, for the uneasy sensation in the pit of his stomach was not the most descriptive - yet before he managed to take three steps the swaying had stopped. Instead, the youngest Shadow Rider, not a sound out of him to suggest he was at all conscious as he did so, collapsed to the floor and lay perfectly still.

"Nightshroud...!" The action caught the other duelists' attention as Camula and Tania both scurried over to him to assess his condition, yet they were not granted a great deal of time to do so before Amnael arrived to offer his own interpretation.

"I will take him to rest," he told them gently, picking the body off the floor. "Nightshroud...was only able to exert enough power to summon the Red-Eyes Black Dragon in battle because he drew on the evil Luxuria and her supporters' presence provided. Without them, he has lost a great deal of energy; he must be allowed the time to recuperate. I will leave him in his chamber and return to finish tending to the student; she must be fully stabilized before we mean to move her."

Camula glanced back at the girl, then at Nightshroud, before shaking her head. "Return her...to the academy, you imply? I wonder...will they come after her?"

"She has a point," Tania seconded. "It may be best to keep her sedated here for awhile - at least until those sins are dealt with. You say we need to defeat each of them in a Shadow Game; we can manage that. That way we will be able to make sure they don't get to this girl and also set the stage for our victory over them..."

"No; I am afraid we will not be combating them again - duel or otherwise." Amnael thought over the suggestion the Amazon made - he understood there was some logic to it, and he hoped that those Kagemaru had chosen to assist him in his ultimate quest for vitality would be worthy duelists - but in the end he felt he could not accept it. Already they had been too busy for his liking; the clandestine nature of their existence, at least until the keys to the Sacred Beasts revealed themselves, was vital to their operation, and already it was in jeopardy. They could not play so active a role in battling this force while risking the chance that someone on the island may take notice; Amnael especially would not take the chance. He was no more than vaguely aware how, but Zane recognized him - apparently, the disguise he wore to conceal his alter ego as Professor Banner was not quite as misleading as he had hoped. "The island contains the potential to overcome this threat without our direct involvement; there are powerful duelists here. Early tomorrow I will bring Miss Rhodes to the infirmary and explain to the chancellor what happened - omitting the part we played, of course. I have no doubt he will inform those he finds capable of dismantling Luxuria and the others; I have a few thoughts in my heart already as to whom. They will defeat the vices of mankind; I am most certain. We will watch and wait. There is no telling, with the sort of forces that will collide in the near future, if the Sacred Beasts will still continue to hide themselves; they may be at last drawn out into the open..."

Amnael cut off quickly, eyes darting to the window to catch only a glimpse of the stars looking back at him - each a compilation of untold knowledge thousands of miles out of his reach...yet for which the temptation to strive was difficult to overcome each night. He sensed something out there - the evil with which he practically damned the students of the academy, leaving them to fend for themselves with only the faith he had as a proud instructor and the little gut feeling to assure him he had made the correct decision. He tried to shake away the guilt, turning abruptly away from the window and striding out the door with the unconscious Shadow Rider in his arms, but for all the parts he could assemble to construct what he would call a brave face, the man the completed visage represented was still painfully afraid. He could not console himself - for what he had done or what he was planning to do - nor could he exactly pinpoint the source of his agony; the fear manifested in shivers up his spine and a prickling in his nerves - no imagery. The caverns of his mind were black; the candles had all burnt out - the tears, sliding over his form as sweat, not permitted to fall from his eyes, would not let him strike a match.

He managed to picture something then - Luxuria, or at least the form he knew housed her currently. It was painful to imagine, but Amnael supposed he ought be thankful her gleaming eyes illuminated the sheer blackness of his inner thoughts. Despite the windowless hall, he felt those eyes watching him - studying his movements...and at the same time cooing soft requests not to bother with his rescue attempts, as it were. Leave them be - join with them in striving for greater power... He tried to ignore her, but like the voice of a siren its influence grasped his very soul. At the moment...he was beyond satisfied with being alone; he had no decent reason to doubt her ability to overtake his judgment if within his vicinity. He readjusted the hold he had on Nightshroud for a moment to slam a fist into the castle wall, reaffirming the reality of his solitude.

"Damn..."

Luxuria heard him; she chuckled. However her connection dimmed the further the man strode through the halls, no doubt doing whatever came to mind that had the slightest chance of weakening her hold on him, and one of his many attempts was successful. She abandoned him then, gathering herself where she stood watching the stone castle at the edge of the lake and retreated back into the haven of the forest where one of her companions awaited her. There were no words - not initially; as the leader viewed their situation, nothing particularly needed saying, and the bright-eyed woman beside her could not help but wonder if perhaps it would not be in her best interest to speak after the loss they experienced.

She did decide to chance it, though. Removing the two cards while feeling the uncanny sensation of familiarity pulse through her as she did so, she held them out under the moonlight and sighed a little. "Will we...accept them?" she asked, angling the card towards the other a little. "Or will we seek to once again combine their essences with our own?"

The paler of the two did not answer immediately, yet she did not appear troubled. It was more that she took the time to ponder what the best solution would be without accepting deeming any of their options, and respective outcomes, negative. "It is difficult to say how we ought proceed. I am not eminently concerned with our power being half-bound to these cards; they may be of use to us yet. Moreover I am interested in discovering what other power that alchemist can offer me..." She allowed her smile to grow wistful. "Perhaps...a body - one that will not suffer the deteriorating effects of my might. We do not know what sort of secrets lay resting on this island; it seems that it was not by accident that we happened upon this place..."

She paused; a vibration coming from the pocket at her hip commanded her attention, and after a few surprised blinks she removed the quivering device for further study. Avaritia, having detected the sound as well, peered at it as well with a puzzled expression, taking a moment to read what writing there was on the screen. The device - a PDA of some sort, the two determined - was not saying anything, but apparently whoever the name flashing before them referred to desired an answer of some kind. The darker-haired individual looked expectantly to the other then before drawing back and tilting her head at her.

"Will you answer?"

Luxuria smirked, removing the glassy covering for the PDA before finding the button which, if she were able to see it, would be enough to address Avaritia's question. "I sense this body would..." With another light laugh, she accepted the call and removed what natural malice she could from her face before the image of another greeted her upon answering. "Alicia; hello..."

* * *

Translation:

Szèrèv vixruka: Embody absolute sin

Note: The language here is one I wrote for my novel, so it's invented. Originally I planned to use ancient Chinese, but I was having trouble translating it...then the same went for Egyptian...and I felt that Greek (while accessible) was not nearly as old as the language needed to be.

Well there you have it; it's finally over! The chapter, that is; not the story :) Thank you very much for reading and I hope I can update soon, though in all honesty I'm not sure if my schedule will help me with that...

One thing I wanted to say here, also, is about Nightshroud's personality. I try (if you can't tell - I never said I was particularly successful ^^;) to keep the characters relatively...in character as of late, but I find that the fact that Nightshroud's dub personality is different from the canon is challenging. I don't want to choose "dub" or "sub" for this story - I much rather find some sort of common ground - so if it seemed odd to you, that's entirely my bad! (A side note along these lines: I can't help but snicker in this chapter when "Nightshroud" declare's "I am darkness..." It's almost like "Well actually...no...")

Please review! I know I always say that but I really mean it this time! I would love to hear what you thought of the chapter contents, but also I would like to know what you think about long chapters. I was happy not to divide this one but I'm wondering if you would prefer I...not do that again in the future. Tell me, because it doesn't kill me to adapt! :D


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